Incarnation - Part 1
by Kyoto141092
Summary: There are many stories about dreams, tales of how they can connect two people. Some have said that dreams are visions of the future, while other claim they can be read like a story in a book. But... what if they were something else? A portal of sorts...or a meeting place? And what might happen if the will of fire encountered a heart of ice there? -Naruto/Esdeath -Lemons/action/ect.
1. 1 - A New Mission

**Hello hello hello! And welcome to the 75** **th** **hunge… Oh… sorry wait what? Wrong story? Sorry, I just get a little carried away sometimes. Huh? I'm an idiot? Well fuck you and the horse you rode in on!**

 **-sigh-**

 **Anyway this is Kyoto back with another story for the first time in a long time. And if you've already seen my post of the redo on Sealing Twilight you are aware that my schedual has been rather busy of late. Not to mention my stupid laptop hasn't allowed me to post anything for a week because of constant glitching.**

 **But that's beside the point. You want to know a little bit about the story you're looking to read. So first of all I'd like to say that this is one of my non-harem stories and that this in non-negotiable. This is a strict Naruto/Esdeath pairing that will be obvious from the get go.**

 **Another thing, this story starts near the very end of Naruto's training trip with Jiraiya. Except in this version Naruto actually got some really fucking training from the pervy old man… and he learned to control the Kyuubi's chakra. Not all of it, but enough.**

 **Last of all… Naruto has a bit of a short temper in this story. I wanted to write it as if the Kyuubi's power is influencing him the more he draws on it in battle. So… with all that in mind… let's jump right into the think of things (right after the disclaimer of course)**

 _ **(I don't own any part of Naruto or Akame ga Kill)**_

 _ **Chapter 1:**_

The moment it hit, Jiraiya knew the impact would be crushing. The power of an erupting volcano behind a single strike. The very fact that his student could improve this much in such a short time was staggering… and honestly… it was starting to take a toll on the master.

Jiraiya of the Sanin, a man of unquestionable strength and indomitable will… was launched backwards as a fist coated in silver slammed into his gut. He didn't have time to react to the punch. It came so fast that he could barely realize it was coming before his muscles tensed for the blow. And what a blow it was. An observer would have sworn that he teleported backwards, hitting a low cliff side behind him with the force of a giant's left hook.

The ground behind him cratered as the stone absorbed the excess energy from the attack. Immediately he caught his bearing, forty years of battles dragging him back from the brink of unconsciousness before he even registered the dark closing in. And he was blasting forward, chakra pumping through ravaged muscles. He was upon his student in a flash, their eyes meeting. Blue slitted eyes met dark pupils. _"Good.. you're even stronger now… Even faster… Let's see how far I can push you! I'll use every ounce of strength I have!"_

"NARUTO!"

 _ **!-WHAM-!**_

Their fists met with a crunch and a grind, their feral gazes locked on one another, unable to be torn away. **"Eat this old man…"** The dark purring voice came like a bloody whip lash across his face as ten strikes battered into him in less time than it took to blink. Jiraiya exhaled crimson as the stone around him was shredded by a wild wind. **"WIND STYLY: FURY OF THE WESTERN WIND!"** A scream like a hundred banshees rent his eardrums in two as a blast came from the west. Blades of wind falling around him like razor edged meteors.

"FIRE STYLE: INFERNAL ARMOR!" Jiraiya activated his newest jutsu and flung himself headlong into the rain of death, pursuing his student as he bent the currents of air around him, flexible serpents that could shear though diamonds as a sharp blade through flesh. He felt the battering ram impact of the attack like dozens of burning cuts across ever part of him.

He slammed into his student, even as the boy barked out a laugh. **"WIND STYLE: MAELSTROM CONVERGENCE!"** Jiraiya's eyes widened at the unfamiliar technique. _"Could this be the jutsu he told me of last week that he couldn't quite get right?!"_ He growled out a curse as he kicked out at his opponent, launching himself away, only to feel the world around him compress. It was as if he was in an ever shrinking dome of wind… but the barrier was made of blades. "DAMN!" He whirled and flashed through dozens of handseals.

"FIRE STYLE: TWIN SERPENTS, ELDER'S EXHALATION!" He drew in a great breath and then blew, his breath leaving him as two streams of pure white fire. They twisted and rose high, brushing the edges of the wind dome… and consumed it, the cutting winds feeding their power and sending them crashing around the dome. Jiraiya formed a constant chain of handseals to direct their direction… and saw the clawed hands of his student in the center. _"Oh shit. Naruto never uses handseals. If he's doing it now, he's pulling out something huge!"_ Squinting his eyes against the growing inferno, he separated his hands and made handseals separately, directing each dragon individually. They soared high, skimming the edges of the dome and circled. Each of them leveled off on the ground, their jaws open to consume their target, the space between top and bottom wide enough to fit a tree inside.

A second before they connected in the middle with Naruto between the jutsu was roared out over the burning serpentine dragons and the shrieking wind dome. **"WIND STYLE: PERFECT IMPLOSION, SELF DESTRUCTING VORTEX!"**

The dome compressed, causing the dragons to become even more bloated as they crashed together around the solitary figure… and then the entire dome exploded, the shockwave leveling everything for three hundred feet and extinguishing the twin fire dragons instantly. Jiraiya found himself tossed like a rag doll in a hurricane, tumbling across the ground out of control as his burning armor was quenched by the gale force winds.

The cliff didn't stop his movement this time, the previous blast having reduced it to a small hill of shattered stone. He crashed through it, coming out the other side bruised and battered. Chakra bled from his skin as he frantically tried to stabilized himself and slow his headlong tumble.

He succeeded and landed on his feet, still skidding backwards. The Sanin caught his balance just in time to defect a horizontal rain of shuriken. It stopped quickly catching him off guard before he heard the familiar shrieking hum of his student's favorite jutsu. **"GIANT RASENGAN!"** Jiraiya grabbed the extended wrist twisting it. The body turned with the wrist and Jiraiya received a devastating kick to the side of his head, Naruto's entire body contorting around at an impossible angle to land the hit.

Jiraiya was forced back again as he was surrounded on three sides. He lashed out quickly, snapping kicking the blond figure in his front as he ducked under another violently spinning ball of chakra. The attack plunged into the third attacker just as he planted his finger tips into the second's chest. All three exploded into smoke as he spun in the air and palmed the ground with one hand. He pulsed his chakra into the ground and rocketed upwards into the air, already going through a new chain of handseals.

The blond was gone.

 _ **!-SNAP-!**_

An armored heel crashed down on the back of his head, sending him to the ground like a comet. Jiraiya landed, his body almost shattered like glass by the force behind those last two kicks. He rose again, his legendary endurance bringing him to his feet without effort. He caught the fist aimed at his head. His other hand knocked aside the jab for his throat. His knee blocked the one lifting to his gut. Jiraiya snapped his head forward into his opponent's. Their eyes met again as his student imitated the action perfectly.

" **Ready to give up old man?!"**

"As if I'd ever surrender to an ungrateful brat like you!"

Naruto growled and his voice was a tremor running through the ground. Jiraiya felt the muscles in his student flex through his fists. **"Then I'll show you my power again!"** The head drew back and lashed out three times

 **!-SMACK-!**

 **!—SMACK-!**

 _ **!-CRACK-!**_

Jiraiya reeled backwards, his face bloody and his mind dazed. He settled into his best defensive stance as thick red liquid blinded him to his adversary's moves. He blocked the first attack by pure reflex. The second one the same as the first. The third landed square in his the center of his chest, throwing him back a step. He rushed forward blindly, sending fire laced chakra bursting through his muscles and he became a blazing juggernaut fighting like a wild brawler.

Blows rained down on him and were ignored as insolent jabs. He rained down his own, each attack a surge of heat. Every blow a blast of super heated wind.

Then he felt it, the crushing power that hit him from the right, the blood covering his eyes burned and flaked away in the face of the crimson torrent. Jiraiya's eyes showed his enemy in a blurry crimson haze. The beast that was his student, swung, his red coated hand catching him a glancing blow to the shoulder.

He let out his first cry, a howl of pain as the bone shattered like glass and the burning chakra devoured his flesh. He turned, spinning in place with the force of the strike and shoved chakra into his legs, leaping over the creature's charge. A crater BOOMED into existence behind him and he landed hard behind his student. He grinned a dead man's grin and watched as the… creature… wreathed in violent swirling chakra… tuned to regard him. Five tails of purest deepest red scorched the air clean with their very presence.

" _It's time to end this…."_

Jiraiya shot forward. The _demon_ grinned as well, ducking to the side. The blue eyes were now a red that more than matched its crimson cloak. **"Too slow old man… Can't you count…? This is five now."** Jiraiya snarled and turned flashing forward in a burst of speed that almost caught the beast of guard. **"Almost…."** He missed again and the beast casually swatted him to the side. The impact was gargantuan. Jiraiya didn't feel himself crash though half a forest before a convenient boulder stopped him cold. His body was broken and the chakra that ate at his every wound had cauterized his nervous system, he was numb… but at the same time knew he was burning alive from the inside.

" **You done yet? I could go all day like this…"**

Jiraiya barely moved his head, coughing up enough breath to speak the two words he needed. "Seal… Release…"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

"OWww!"

"Hold still damn it! Let me get the toad oil on it!"

"That stings old man! Get that shit away from me! I'll heal fine without it!

"And you'll scar like an old prune!"

"YOWCH!"

 _ **-one hour later-**_

Jiraiya sat, sullen but victorious, feeling a hostile glare leveled on him by his student.

"You could have just let me heal ya know." Naruto growled. "Now my skin is going to be all itchy and sensitive for the next month. I swear you keep that stuff on hand just to make me miserable every time I get control of a new tail!"

"You whine too much." _"With the pain I'm in you have nothing to complain about…"_

"Says the guy who bemoans the fact that he hasn't gotten laid.. IN HIS LIFE!" Naruto pointed his finger at him accusingly, the appendage scraped in gauze. "You're probably the whiniest person I know and I had to train with Sakura under Kakashi! Do you know how much she complained on a daily basis!?"

Jiraiya sighed and turned away from the enraged blond. "Get over it. This way we can get back to your training faster. I want to get you as strong as possible before I have to hand you back over to Tsunade. You know she's going to keep you locked away in the village from every conceivable threat. Probably until the Akatsuki come knocking on the village gate." He looked up at the sky as it turned darkened, heralding night's coming. "We only have another two months and there's one more agent I need to meet with before we return to Konoha."

Naruto lowered his hand and grumbled. "You and your agents. I swear if this new 'agent' turns out to be a prostitute that you like in the land of who-knows-what… I am going to achieve Six-tails transformation just so I can kick your ass for good."

"Yeah yeah." Jiraiya glanced back at his student as he twisted back to their camp's fire. "It's actually important that I meet with her. I haven't seen her in ten years and I sent her on a rather important assignment that's been in the works since you were a toddler."

Naruto perked up. "Huh? So this _isn't_ a bullshit visit? Cool! So who is this girl's mission?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Originally her job was to prevent Kiri and Kumo from trading by sea using any means necessary. This was during the days after they teamed up to destroy Uzushiogakure. But as she was doing her job she kept encountering odd vessels the further out she went into the eastern sea. Eventually she started to take a log of them and came to the conclusion that they were part of a sea trade rout. However… it couldn't have been Kumo or Kiri at that time because shortly before that they became enemies. She… correctly… assumed they were part of another nation, unknown to the Elemental lands."

"COOL! So there's like a whole other continent out there!? Why didn't you ever tell us that was our last stop before?!"

"Because…" Jiraiya said smirking. "You would never have stopped pestering me until I took you there and out appointment isn't for a week… which is exactly how long it should take us to reach the east shore of the Land of Fire. Now shut up. Stop wasting energy talking and heal. It should only be a day and we can take off those bandages and get on the road. It's a straight shot east from here!"

"Come on! I just got access to five tails state! Let me do some Ninjutsu training before we leave this spot! Then we can go over an…."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Need I remind you that I almost died?... Again…"

Naruto crossed his arms. "You're ALWAYS almost dying. It's like your hobby." Naruto grinned, showing off his semi sharp teeth and long canines. "You forget? I'm the only reason you're as strong as you are now anyway. Weren't you the one who said that Shinobi grow stronger by being brought to the brink repeatedly?"

"True, but…"

"And what is dying a few times compared to sparring with your favorite student and… _only_ godson!?" Naruto seemed to glow with (admittedly sarcastic) pride. "So what if I've almost killed you twenty-five times in the last two years! It's all about the bond right?!"

"Not twenty-five… The tally of near death experiences is almost double that… Or did you forget the three months after you breached the Three-tails barrier? You have nearly killed me a grand total of thirty-nine times."

"OH YEAH! Only eleven more to go and we'll hit fifty!"

He dead-panned. "Please don't be excited about that…"

Naruto lowered his arms and dropped his stupid grin. "But seriously, I have complete control of three tails now and I can reach Five-tails cloak in a pinch… without turning into a homicidal maniac. I used to go bat shit crazy at two."

"That is a good point, but full control over three tails? That is only one third of the total number… and the amount of power you gain with each new tail is exponential. The first tail doubled your usual power and you _never_ ran out of chakra. The second tail was double that as well, putting you well above Chunin level, if not quite Jonin level. Then the third tail tripled _that_ putting you on par and even exceeding my power at the time…."

"Which was when you wanted to quit." Naruto muttered.

"Which was when I wanted to quit." He admitted. "But now it is getting completely ridiculous. If by my measures… the four tails will give you full access to power _easily_ on par with a Kage. Five tails, which you just managed to briefly harness today could give you the power needed to butcher some of the most powerful individuals in the world…." Jiraiya seemed to shiver at the thought. "I hesitate to imagine how much power you could have by fully mastering six of the nine tails…."

They were both silent at that. Jiraiya personally was frightened at the god like power Naruto could easily wield in the future, but at the same time, ecstatic that he was the one training him to use it…. Of course he himself was far more powerful than he'd ever been before. Training every day for two years with (quite possibly) the most dangerous and unpredictable ninja alive… To put it bluntly, he improved rapidly. Not nearly as fast as Naruto did, but still… he felt that he could have gone toe to toe with Hanzo.

And that was something he'd once been unfortunate enough to fail at… even with the help of his old teammates.

Naruto on the other hand.. He changed. _Drastically._

Gone was the immature boy of thirteen who would rush headlong into a fight, completely and utterly unprepared for anything. He was still immature in some ways; retaining that devil-may-care attitude and complete disregard for authority… or his own skin. He still rushed headlong into conflict… but he was no longer unprepared for it. Seeing how he was undoubtedly high Jonin level now… just with _sheer_ power. That wasn't counting his keen mind.

Oh yeah… he had one of those now.

He would never be called an idiot again. Jiraiya would personally hamstring anyone who considered his godson anything less than a genius. For example, he mastered jutsu so fast that it made his head spin. Shadow Clones… an A-rank jutsu in a single night. Rasengan… a week _without_ any real hints or direction. Mastery over wind manipulation in two weeks… Not just cutting a leaf in half. Not just cutting a piddly little waterfall in half… Naruto could cut a huge boulder in half just by putting his palm against it.

 _That_ was mastery… and _that_ was only a small part of why Naruto was a mastermind. The kid could come up with a solution for ANYTHING. No matter what the problem was, he could find some way to fix it… in the most bizarre unconventional way you could imagine. Things that no remotely sane person could think of.

The kid was also a genius when it came to inventing jutsu… and, if he did say so himself, _far_ better than his father at naming them. And some of them… jeeze. He outdid himself regularly. Out of his arsenal of twenty Wind Style jutsu… not… a …single… _one_ … was below A-rank. Six were S-rank. Their chakra costs were unreal and the fact that he could do more than half with no handseals…

He was deadly. Now Naruto… He could have thrashed Hanzo while using the Five-tails cloak.

As for his general maturity… he'd improved greatly. He still spoke his mind without care, but he wasn't clueless anymore. He understood how things worked in the world. He did embarrass himself sometimes… but these days that was usually because he fudged a jutsu and blew himself up. Jiraiya might have thought that he'd been hopeless when it came to girls… but he wasn't. Not that he was a playboy in any way. He just tended to ignore the fairer sex, thinking that they were far more trouble than they were worth.

Not exactly a golden development for his novels, but Naruto… thank Kami-sama… still had a tendency to find himself in _situations._ Well, sometimes might have been an understatement. To tell the truth it was at least once a month. But he never got in trouble for it… for some reason.

How he hated that.

Jiraiya felt a smile tracing across his lips again as he turned to look at his Godson. Naruto was taller now, having gained quite a bit during the trip, though he was still way under his own towering height. His skin was a slightly deeper tan and his muscles were powerful but sleek. His definition would make any self respecting woman swoon if he took his shirt off. He was fond of saying that he'd be even more handsome than his father had been said to be. And seeing how Minato Namikaze could have easily had a harem by seventeen… Well, that might not have been a bad thing. At the very least he'd get plenty of writing material.

Naruto's most marked appearance was in his face, which his rigorous training had shaved of any baby fat. In fact Naruto was even more fit than him in that regard. Basically all he did was train and the Kyuubi already boosted his metabolism to an insane degree. But that only made him look older. The real change was his eyes. Neither of them knew why, though they hypothesized that it had to do with the excess chakra running through his system for two entire years… but his usual blue eyes now bore slitted pupils. That and his whisker marks no longer faded back to thin lines after he achieved complete control over Two-tails cloak. In addition to that his hair was longer, appearing almost as Minato's from certain angles.

Now if he could just get the kid to cooperate with him on his Ichi-Icha. Then he could get some quality material!

Not that it would ever happen… but maybe he could get some when Naruto finally found some girl he liked. He personally refused to count the pink haired monstrosity as a girl… She was some kind of rage-demon masquerading as a member of the female species. Truly a horror to behold. And she didn't even have any tits to speak of!

"Oi! Pervy sage, what's that look for?!"

"Oh… nothing Naruto… Nothing at all.

"You were thinking something perverted weren't you." Naruto growled accusingly. "Admit it; you can't even go five minutes without thinking about girls… I should lob you into a women's hot-spring again, see if that finally cures you of your illness."

Jiraiya coughed and sweat-dropped. "No need to try and kill the old man for good… I haven't groped Tsunade in over three years you know. I can't die quite yet!"

"Knew it… Perv."

"Says the boy who gets chased around by the local Kunoichi every time we go into a village. You might be more like your mother than I ever imagined, but you aren't completely immune to it. I saw the way you looked at that girl back in the last village. You were honestly thinking about asking her out weren't you?"

Naruto's head whipped to the side. "Shut up…" He blushed, scratching at the back of his head. "She said she liked my eyes… Most people get freaked out by them these days."

"Poor Naruto… _Most_ civilians are put off, but half of the Shinobi who see them assume you have a Dojutsu.. not the worst think for them to think. It puts them off the idea of attacking you. And that makes things easier for both of us…." Jiraiya stood and walked to the fire, stooping down to bank it for the night. "Now shut your trap and get some sleep. We get up early tomorrow and head east."

Naruto gave him the finger and slipped backwards off the log he was sitting on. He landed on top of his sleeping back with an Umph! of expelled air. He lay there staring up at the night sky as Jiraiya finished prepping the fire for the long night and went to his own sleeping bag.

 **Ooo**

 **-One week later-**

 **Ooo**

Naruto sighed as he looked out over the crystal blue ocean. "Pitty.. If we were a bit further south we could stop by and see Tazuna and his family. I wonder if Inari took over his father's business by now… He'd be the same age now that I was when I was there last."

Jiraiya huffed as he finished speaking with one of the local fishermen. "Yeah, but then we'd have to worry about the last remnants of the Kiri loyalists. They're still being hunted down by the new Mizukage. I don't want us getting caught up in anything big a month before we head back to the village."

"Fine. Anyway, where is this agent of yours?"

He pointed down the shore to a larger docking area that bordered the shore side village. "That right there is where we meet. Usually she sends me reports through a secondary chain of contacts set up thought out the Land of Fire, but seeing how I've been on the road for a good three years I've missed six separate reports from her. I'm eager to see what she's learned."

"Every six months?" Naruto frowned. "What is she doing if she only sends you updates every six months? Villages have been razed and rebuilt in less time."

"Ahh…" Jiraiya grinned. "That's the thing about her. She doesn't just log shipping lanes anymore. She actually went over _'there'_ a year or so back. The journey to the other continent takes a minimum of a week by water. And that's with special ships aided with Ninjutsu. A normal fishing vessel would take over a month to travel there and another month back. So she has about three months over on that side at a time."

Naruto nodded, looking back towards the dock. "What time is the meeting?"

"It's scheduled for 9:00 sharp at the local bar. We'll be going in on time, but you need to disguise yourself again. Remember that just walking around town is usually fine, bars are always places where information gathers…"

"And…" Naruto finished the sentence for him. "…where others go to gather information… whether it is being given freely or not."

"Yes. And as much as it was amusing to watch the girls fawn over you in the last three villages, this is one of my best agents and she doesn't need any attention being drawn to her through our actions. So keep your head down."

"Alright old man, gimme a second to get my henge in place." Naruto made a single handseal and in a plume of smoke there was a blond haired girl in his place, remarkable attractive, but wearing modest clothing that didn't draw attention to its self. This being the 'infiltration' version of Naruto's not so infamous sexy jutsu. When he was completely done 'she' got into character, a serious/pouty expression became the default instead of the roguish grin Naruto usually wore these days.

She turned and gave a mock salute to Jiraiya. "Oi! Ready to go uncle! Or is it sensei this time?"

Jiraiya started walking towards the village. "You'll be my student until it is more convenient to reveal your identity. Keep up the usual attitude. She'll like you with that."

"Okay, but what is she like… based of people we've met recently?"

"Appearance wise? She has black hair, maybe late twenties to early thirties. Looks wise… Rather like that Kurotsuchi girl from Iwa. At least that's how she keeps her hair…. Not much in the way of tits, but with a rather nice rear end. Quite muscular. The biggest thing to tell her by is her arm is mechanical."

"M…mechanical. Like metal?" 'Naruko'scrunched her face up. "Never heard of anything like that except in the land of Iron. Don't the samurai have stuff like that?"

"Oh she keeps it hidden and is quite vain about it. I wouldn't talk about it if I were you. She'd probably try to kill you for it."

Naruto groaned and started following him. "Ya know, I'd like an explanation old man.. I mean… _every_ one of the agents we meet seems like a vain person who would kill you for mentioning it."

"That's not.."

"Nakiko village? The old man with the wandering eye who threw a kunai at me every time he thought I was staring at it."

"That was…"

"Or in Suna with that girl with the huge rack and who was so self conscious about her squeaky voice that she made us communicate in writing the ENTIRE time? And when I asked why she was being so weird she tried to chop my balls off with that claw gauntlet of hers?"

"I…"

Naruko raised a finger, "Or even your agent in that Kumo village that thought she was such hot stuff that when I _mentioned_ that she wasn't exactly in the peak of her youth anymore… she _literally_ tried to turn me inside out? What about her?"

As they walked Jiraiya let out a sigh. "Well, at least they all came around once they learned about who you were."

"Of course." Naruko rolled her bright blue eyes. "As soon as you drop the Namikaze bomb they all turn into the nicest people you could imagine. But I don't care about who my dad was. I mean, I love the fact that he was my dad, but I don't want others to respect me because of who my dad was. I've told you that before."

"True…"

"And that's not even the point I was trying to make. We're going to meet someone weird and somewhat insane aren't we?"

"….."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"She's really a great person once you get to know her!"

Naruko deadpanned so hard that somewhere in Konoha a certain Wood Style user sneezed before going back to practicing his stare in a small pocket mirror.

"You're pathetic."

Jiraiya's shoulders slumped as they entered the edge of the small village. Conversation dropped off as they made their way down the street, drawing looks from nearly everyone… despite the fact that both were dressed as civilians. This might have been because Jiraiya was easily head and shoulders above most in height… and his hair was almost unique to the elemental nations. Not to mention the fact that he had a massive scroll on his back, which might have detracted from the civilian dress. However people stared more at the beautiful blond girl by his side though, the eyes of the men not failing to notice her curves even under her modest clothing. Nor the fact that she walked with a grace that was beyond beautiful.

Inside said blond's head she was at once proud of 'him'self for deceiving some who were obviously ninja. Why at least three of the men who were leering at him wore ninja headbands. And at the same time he was disappointed that no one… ever… saw through his disguise. Honestly there was no challenge anymore. Even Jiraiya, with all the time they'd trained together, could only guess who the real him was in a shadow clone battle. Honestly, people should have been able to see through a simple henge, regardless of how well put together.

But, as always, it seemed that the guys were too busy trying to measure her three sizes and the women, too busy being jealous.

Naruto thought of all the people he'd fooled with a simple henge and his superb acting skills. Literally he could count the number of people who could see though his henge on one hand. And two had the Sharingan, two had the Byakugan, and the last was an Inuzuka. All five required some assistance to see through his henge… He/she gave a great sigh, emphasized by the dramatic movement of her breasts… which was shortly accompanied by the mass dripping and iron tang of several bloody noses in the area.

"Which building is the bar?" she asked, getting annoyed.

"This one." Jiraiya turned on his heel and they made a swift right into a smallish building on the north side of the village. They entered through the open door and into a relatively well lit room with some fifteen or so people in it…. All men. This immediately alerted both of them to the absence of Jiraiya's agent as well as to the fact that Naruto in the guise of a female was now, without a doubt, the center of attention.

Jiraiya, realizing that the situation was less than the best, still decided to continue with it. He turned his gaze to the left, scanning each booth in turn and located the one where he was supposed to meet his agent.

In her place was a young man, about thirty or so. He had long straight brown hair and dark eyes. His skin was pale, but not naturally. His pasty complexion looked to be from some emotion like fear or sorrow. Jiraiya noticed the distinct lack of any weapons or even a headband. Not that any of his agents wore headbands when they came to meet him. These meetings were meant to be discrete after all. An Iwa nin for instance would not normally deign to even speak to a Konoha nin. So they tended to leave anything that marked them as ninja at home.

Naruto nudged Jiraiya. "I don't feel anything off about him, but he smells… I don't know. Desperate almost."

"I'll take it from here. Keep silent until it's clear he's not some spy sent in her place to get info on us."

"Got it."

They both strode into the bar, ignoring the blatant stares of at least half the room… and seated themselves at the booth where the man sat.

For a moment he seemed not to notice them, then with a start, he looked up. "Oh! You must be..!" Naruko made a line across her throat with one thumb and frowned dangerously. The man stopped just short of saying what would probably have been _"Jiraiya of the Sanin"_ and gulped nervously. Jiraiya smiled at Naruko for salvaging the situation at least a little bit. Then he glanced back at the guy, who was sweating at that point.

"Who are you?"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Twenty minutes later they were outside the bar and quite a ways away from the village. Naruko still hadn't become himself yet, keeping up the pretenses of being a girl. While Jiraiya was trying to get the man, now identified as Sir Armen, to calm down.

It took awhile, but eventually the older man succeeded in getting Armen to breathe properly.

"Now…" Jiraiya said, his voice somewhat strained. "That we've established that you know who I am and that you are coming in place of my agent… please explain yourself."

Armen, who was only slightly less pale than he had been, nodded. "I am terribly sorry for my reaction, but I was sure your wouldn't come. Recent events in my homeland have been horrible and I have little faith in foreigners… I'm truly sorry." He gave a deep bow to Jiraiya but asked timidly, "But I was also under the impression that you were to come alone…" His eyes darted to the blond worriedly.

Jiraiya waved it off. "This is my student and he will be the heir to all my operations. If I die in the near future he will take up my duties as spymaster."

"He?" Armen blinked. "You do mean 'she' right?"

Naruko let the henge run out of chakra and closed her eyes as the illusion dispelled in an explosion of smoke. When it cleared there was a very 'male' boy there, with his arms crossed and his eyebrow raised in question. "Yet another guy who can't see through a basic henge…"

"I…?!" Armen looked amazed for a moment then recovered. "I.. I am sorry, but I was not aware you were under a henge. My wife did not tell me much of her abilities as she was always busy. I was under the impression that she was the only one who could do that."

"Eh? Wife?" Jiraiya blinked in shock. "You're telling me that Hakana married you?!"

"Yes… Allow me to explain please. I am Sir Armen, former tactician and advisor to the Emperor. I am not born of these lands, as I am from the Capital. You probably do not know any of this, which is why I am here and must tell you everything. My wife tasked me with this job in the case that she died."

"She's dead…" Jiraiya closed his eyes briefly, allowing himself a moment of sorrow before getting back to business. "Tell me everything from the beginning."

"Very well." Armen sat down on a log in the clearing where they had hidden themselves and began.

"To start off with I met your agent, Hakana, a year and a half ago. She at first told me that she was from a foreign land in the far south and was in need of information. I had just recently been dismissed from my position as an advisor to the Emperor and had nothing else to do. She offered me money and I wasn't in any position to refuse… so I helped her get settled on the Empire's far western coast. It wasn't too long and we became friends. I, for my part, was still mourning the loss of my rank and position while she…. I thought…. was a refugee of some kind. We grew close very quickly and to cut a very long and… a bit sappy story short… she eventually told me her secret. She wasn't a refugee as I assumed, nor even from my home continent. She was an elite warrior from another land sent here to gather Intel on possible threats."

Jiraiya glanced at Naruto who shrugged. What was it to them? They couldn't blame someone for falling in love. Armen didn't even notice their movement and continued.

"I was shocked of course. I didn't even know she could fight at the time. So I asked her for proof and she used that same ability that you used to become a woman. I was astounded. I assumed that she possessed an Imperial arm, one of 48 powerful artifacts created by the first Emperor. But she said that she was born with the power and that she could do any number of amazing things with it. She then explained that she loved me, but that she had a duty to perform. She… she said that this land is currently in a cold war of sorts. No one dares openly declare war, yet it isn't peace. I understood what she meant by this. She wasn't there to cause trouble, but instead to make sure that anything from my land didn't start off the next Great War here."

He swallowed hard. "So I decided to help her in that regard. Hakana started to branch out and create a network of small time informants and spies on the coast. It was very successful, or at least I thought it was. She was always so efficient it scared me sometimes. But we continued. That was when things took a turn for the worse. Hakana heard from one of her informants that there was revolution against the capital of the Empire. I'm sure you know Jiraiya.. that Hakana was very opinionated and would stop at nothing to help others. I had already told her of what happened to me in the Capital and she understood that the entire Capital is corrupt to its core. So she contacted the revolution and… in particular… a group known as Nightraid."

"Nightraid?" Naruto asked.

"A group of specialized warriors and assassins of great power and skill. Their duty is to kill corrupt individuals in the Capital and protect those few just leaders that are left. They are the front line of the Revolution and are regularly hunted by the Capital's most powerful men… and…" He added almost as an afterthought. "Women…"

He shivered at some unknown thought and continued. "She contacted Nightraid and asked if there was any way she could help further the goals of the revolution without being discovered. They sent back that there was a way. They asked her to go to the capital and meet with a member of Nightraid and exchange information. Then she would help set up a network of spies and informants in the lands surrounding the Capital its self. Things went very smoothly for two month after that, but…" Armen looked to the ground suddenly, his jaw clenching. "But then we were betrayed. One of her contacts on the coast was actually an agent of the Capital and had been working his way onto Hakana's trust the entire time. And about the time that my wife had fifty people working in and around the Capital… he struck."

Jiraiya began to feel sick at his stomach and Naruto was pale.

"The next day my.. my wife's head… was on our d..door step and there was a note.. on the door…. It said 'Those who oppose the Empire oppose the Emperor himself… and by the law of the land, those who oppose the Emperor will be sentenced to death.' It was a warning to everyone who had dared try to stop the corruption that we didn't have the power to stop them at all. I.. left as quickly as I could and, under my wife's instructions, I came here the following month."

"And here you are… So the Capital destroyed the spy ring she set up there?"

"Yes."

Naruto groaned loudly. "And only a month left and we have to go back to Konoha! Damn! I so want to go over there and kick ass now!" He gritted his teeth. "This Emperor sounds like a scum bag. I ought to rip his head off."

"No! You are mistaken!" Armen shouted. "The Emperor is a nice boy, kind to a fault and ignorant of everything he does. The man who is to blame is his chief advisor… Or I should say, 'only' advisor. His name is Honest and he is the most evil man I have ever met. He has made himself into the Emperor's only friend and confidant."

At Naruto and Jiraiya's surprised looks he explained further. "You must understand that my homeland operates under an absolute monarchy and the Emperor is the last of his family. The royal family's advisors have always had immense power, but our current Emperor is barely thirteen and knows nothing about how to rule a nation. His late father knew that he would leave his son as a young boy on the throne and gave him an entire cabinet of advisors, twenty in all, to help him govern until he was ready to do it alone. But Honest has killed, discredited, or banished all of them in the Emperor's name."

Jiraiya let out a groan of his own. "So you have a figurehead as your emperor and the one behind the scenes has manipulated him into thinking that everything he does is for the good of the people."

"Unfortunately… yes."

"That's just great. Not only did I lose one of my best agents, our neighboring content is ruled by a figurehead. And this figurehead is controlled by an advisor who seems to be slowly rotting your country from the inside out. Am I correct it assuming that life is not easy or pleasant in your homeland?"

"That is true." Armen admitted. "Many of the outlying villages and towns are filled with families who are slowly starving to death for lack of food. The Capital taxes everyone in extremes and when they do not have the money to pay them, the enforcers take possessions.. then food or water. Then anything they you own. And Honest recently convinced his majesty to bring back a kind of slavery. It's terrible because of how excited he was about it. I think the Emperor's education has been stunted and twisted so much that he would think having someone executed the best thing in the world."

Jiraiya's expression twitched, struggling not to show his anger. "I only have one question then."

"Yes Lord Jiraiya? Will you help me? ...Us…?!"

"That depends." He closed his eyes. "Do your people know of us? The Elemental Nations?"

"Of course." Armen nodded. "They have known about another continent to the west for years. However the Emperor before the current one was content with our holdings and did not wish to venture into new territory. He was a peaceful Emperor. But Honest wants the entire continent under his control and will probably succeed in conquering the few free nations left in three years or so."

Naruto interrupted. "That's pretty fast. Three years to take over a whole continent? I mean here that would be impossible. All the villages are relatively equal in strength. Except for Suna and Kiri which are weakened right now. How could your… Capital take over a whole continent in that short a time?"

"To be blunt, the people of your continent are very powerful... My wife told me that even a low ranking soldier from one of your villages could most likely take on a captain in our army. I think that she said that even our Generals would have a hard time against true Jonin… though I don't know what that name means exactly."

Naruto pointed to himself. "A Jonin refers to a specific rank out of four. Genin are the weakest and newest to the military, Chunin are more skilled and experienced, Jonin are the elites and Kage are the leaders of the individual villages. I'm only a Genin but I have abilities that easily stack against strong Jonin." He nudged Jiraiya. "My sensei here is at Kage level right now. He could level whole villages with a single move, but then again so could I."

Jiraiya shook his head. "Naruto, shut it." He turned to Armen. "Go on.."

"Well…" He sighed. "Unlike here the Capital has almost all the strong warriors already in its service. For example the Capital's two great Generals could defeat an entire army single handedly and come out uninjured… In fact that has already happened. Currently the Ice General, as she is called, is in the far north conquering the tribals that banded together there. And the Lightning General is still in the Capital acting as a deterrent to the rebels and Nightraid."

"And there isn't anyone outside the Capital that stands a chance against these two great Generals?"

"Not really. Those two are demons… Devils in the skin of men. I once thought that the Lightning General, known as Budo, was a just man." Armen expelled an angry breath. "But I was wrong. He sees anything that opposes the Emperor as trash that must be destroyed, even though he knows the Emperor is an ignorant child being controlled by the Prime Minister. He can control lightning and his physical strength and endurance is legendary."

"Tell me…" Jiraiya leaned forward. "Will the Capital turn its gaze on the Elemental Nations once it has taken control over its own lands?"

"I wouldn't doubt it for a moment. Although I don't know if they could defeat you, I think that Prime Minister Honest would do that… without question."

Jiraiya swore loudly and stood. He bit his thumb and smeared blood on his palm. A split second later he slammed it into the ground. Naruto and Armen watched as a large toad appeared in a plume of smoke. Armen was gaping like a fish out of water… either at the six foot tall toad… or the manner in which it had been summoned. Perhaps both.

"Yo! Jiraiya-sama! How's it going?!"

"Listen, no time to talk. Something has just come up that is extremely important. I need you to go to Konoha immediately and tell the Hokage that we need an extension of at least two months on Naruto's training trip, details to follow."

"Okay…" The large toad shrugged. "Fine with me. Anything else?"

"Yes. Send a messenger toad to Otsu village and contact my agent there. Tell him to come to this village immediately and take over Hakana's duties."

The Toad saluted. "As you command master Jiraiya!" Then in a plume of smoke, he disappeared.

Jiraiya paid it no mind and turned to Armen and Naruto. "Okay. This is what we will do. You, Naruto, and I will go to your homeland and find out exactly what the situation is. That shouldn't take more than three months to accomplish. Then we will decide what is to be done about this. We absolutely cannot allow your people to set off another Great War here and if push comes to shove… we will help you deal with this corrupt minister ourselves."

"Really?!" Armen looked ecstatic. "You would actually come to our land and help yourselves?! That's more than I could have ever dreamed!"

The Toad Sage raised a hand. "Wait."

Armen quieted and listened.

"We are only going there to appraise the situation and deal with small issues as we meet them. Once we have decided on a course of action we will call for reinforcements to remedy the situation. While my student and I are very strong, we aren't going to take on an entire country by ourselves. That would be idiotic and far too slow. We would send a message back to bring a few teams of our elite Shinobi who's talents were just right for the task."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, it's a pity I don't know how to use Hirashin… Otherwise we really would only need one person."

"What is Hirashin?"

Jiraiya waved him off. "Not right now. We have a relatively limited amount of time to work with. I have been in war before and three months is hardly any time at all in the scheme of things. And time flies even faster when you are working to prevent war. We will leave today by the ship that Hakana used to go back and forth between your land and ours. I don't have much skill with Water style jutsu… but I have enough to get us there in just over a week. Naruto can help with the wind as well to speed our arrival."

"We.. leave today?" Naruto asked hesitantly. "Just like that?"

"Yes. Now let's get going."

Naruto grinned. "Granny Tsunade is going to so… pissed. But, oh well! I want to see this place! In only a week I'll be kicking ass!"

With that, they left.

 **Ooo**

 **-Two days later-**

 **Ooo**

Armen watched, still in some amazement, as Jiraiya funneled a stream of wind into their ship's sails. He'd been doing this for hours…. And before that Naruto did the same. The blond had kept it going for two entire days! Without taking a break other than to eat! It was astounding… and his sheer control over wind… It was incredible. He could have easily held the title of Great Wind General to match Esdeath or Budo.

What scared him was Jiraiya's straight faced comment about this being quote, "only a small piece of what he could do". That was almost scary. His wife had shown him some powerful techniques, but nothing that compared to punting a medium sized ship along at speed for two days straight.

But he didn't voice these thoughts of wonderment to Naruto or his master. He felt that doing so might lower himself in their eyes. He already appeared to be desperate and he didn't like feeling such. As weak as he was and as little influence as he'd had recently… he liked to be able to do things at his leisure. Back when he was an advisor to the Emperor he was able to do what he wanted when he wanted and no one would question it. He didn't abuse the power like others often did, but he still enjoyed the privilege.

Being with Hakana had made him feel important again… and in more than one way. Both in that he had a beautiful woman doting on him, and that he was affecting world events again. Now that she was gone though… he felt powerless, especially with such powerful men as these two.

Armen sighed as Jiraiya let the winds die down.

"Oh… sheesh.. that really takes it out of me. I'm mainly a Fire user so wind is opposed to my power. Not as bad as Water, but still hard. Anyway… go wake up Naruto. He's probably rested enough to take over for now."

"Wait.. can I ask a few question about your… chakra was it?"

"Sure. I'm actually surprised that you haven't already asked." Jiraya leaned back against the rail of the ship and crossed his arms. "What did you want to know?"

Armen scratched his chin. "How is it that you can do all this without Teigu? In my land we use artifacts known as Teigu to produce some of the same effects. For instance there is a pair of heavily armored gauntlets which give the user complete control of lightning. But neither of you have artifacts of any kind… And neither did my wife. I'm not usually one to pry, but I am confused."

"Let me put it this way then. Imagine if these… Teigu… as you call them. Imagine if we had a genetic ability to use similar abilities passed down from generation to generation. My agent, you wife, was a skilled with Water Style. She could pull water out of thin air with only a small amount of effort."

"I.. she never really told me."

"Of course not." Jiraiya shook his head. "She may have told you some of her abilities and she may very well have loved you, but she wouldn't endanger her entire home continent just so you could be well informed. Someone might have captured you and tortured the information out of you."

"I understand that… I just have a hard time believing that…"

"That your wife would be so cautious?"

"Yes… That's exactly it."

Jiraiya sighed. "Your homeland is _obviously_ more lax than ours. Your wife was a member of the Hidden village of Konoha. The Village Hidden in the Leaves. She was, above all else, a loyal ninja. And in our land, which has been warring off and on since before anyone can even remember… secrecy, discretion, loyalty.. These traits are taught and valued above all else. She was in what she probably considered hostile territory every moment of the day." He closed his eyes. "It may seem out of the ordinary to you… but a more devoted Kunoichi would have killed you rather than create a loose end during her mission."

Armen took a step back and paled. "That's…!"

"One of many things that make Ninja more deadly than normal men and women. We are willing to do what others would gag at the thought of. It isn't that we are monsters… It is merely that we do what must be done."

Jiriaya cracked one eye, his expression becoming very serious. "Besides… You can't fight monsters… without, in some way, becoming one."

Armen swallowed and practically fled the deck, almost sprinting into the cabin and descending below to the middle level of the ship. There he let himself catch his breath. He was pale… very pale. To think that his wife might have murdered him _because_ she loved him… because _he_ made her lose momentum or an advantage in completing her mission. To think.. that these two men could be the very same way. Did he really want to recruit them? What was he THINKING?!

These two men were immensely powerful… and… _"No.. wait. They are just doing what is right for their home. Just like what I am doing… Fuck. I have to get myself together! I can't just shy away because they are willing to go to drastic measures to get the job done. It's like he said, it takes fire to fight fire sometimes. You can't fight something that has nothing to lose without putting everything you have on the line. To destroy the Capital… we are going o have to resort to underhanded measures…. Just like Hakana said."_

He straightened, his mind resolved, and walked over to the living quarters to wake Naruto.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto mumbled sleepily as he stood, very confused, in the middle of a…

He looked around. To all appearances he was standing on a white capped plateau. He could see nothing but blue sky and white clouds around him… Or was it snow? He couldn't tell… and it was very strange. Why was he here? Wasn't he supposed to be?

"Ah… I'm dreaming…" Naruto blinked rapidly and looked up into the sky. It was pale blue with streamers of cloud… It was beautiful. "Well, this is way better than most of my dreams… Guess I'll enjoy it…"

Looking around again, Naruto became aware of a… feeling. Like something was out of place. Or… no. That wasn't the right way to describe it at all. It was less a feeling of something missing, and more the sensation of something being there that wasn't supposed to be. It was uncomfortable and… growing more so by the second.

Naruto shook his head as a _pressure._ A _cold_ pressure squeezed his mind.. his thoughts. _"OW! What the hell!? Dreams aren't supposed to hurt! What the hell?!"_ He fell back, his rear landing in cold white powder. "Snow?! Why does it feel wet?! What the fuck is happening to me?!" Naruto cursed loudly as the pressure on his thoughts became painful, icy needles burrowing into his temples.

He winced and put his hands to his head, groaning in pain and collapsing backwards to lie flat on his back.

"Ow…" he moaned as the needles… _drills_ … continued to turn his brain to mush. He screwed his eyes shut from the excruciating pain and gritted his teeth.

And then… It stopped.

Naruto felt the pain abruptly vanish and the uncomfortable feeling of pressure changed into a… cool, pleasant sensation in the back of his mind… it was comparable to the feeling of a snowflake melting on your skin. Chill but at the same time, gentle. He let out a long breath and lay still. He didn't know what had just happened or why. And he really didn't want to move again in case it restarted the drilling. Instead he settled for letting his muscles uncoil… letting himself slowly relax.

"Wh.. where am I?!"

Naruto opened his eyes. He sat up quickly. His ears registering a voice, feminine and clear… like a strident bell. Loud and demanding, yet soft in its undertone. It almost seemed to echo in his mind after the initial sound had faded.

He turned around.

Naruto blinked…. and blushed pink.

He found himself staring at… possibly the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his short life. A young woman… looking to be maybe twenty years of age. She was tall with the fairest skin he'd ever glimpsed and hair the color of sapphire. His eyes traveled upward from her long toned legs to strong thighs and wide hips. His blush deepened as he noted the neatly tripped patch of light blue between her legs. A v shape that would have caused Jiraiya to die outright of bloodloss. Her waist was curved delightfully in a perfect hourglass figure, yet the muscles were tight and absent of unnecessary fat.

Naruto tried and failed to skip over her breasts which were only a size way from Tsunade, their color so… -gulp- …He moved on, up the slopes of her breasts to her nipples, two medium pink circles and to her graceful neck… around which rested her only adornment, a black collar like band inset with a small black cross. Just below that, nestled above her breasts was a simple black design like a tattoo.

Then his eyes took in her face and he would have sworn that… had he ever desired to redo his Sexy jutsu… he need look no further. Creamy skin that held no small embarrassed blush and rosy lips that were still full and… kissable…. Round features and… eyes… that _perfectly_ matched his own. Long eyelashes that were themselves blue. Her hair… fell in three parts that curved inward over her eyes.

Naruto found himself incapable of speech as his face flamed red. Three thoughts were warring in his mind. And nearly a minute passed before one fought through to the head. _"She's…. she is… beautiful…."_ Nothing else occupied his mind and he was… quite unable to say anything. He was stunned… shocked… paralyzed by the beauty before him. As much as he had done his best to survive his sensei's 'teachings'… he still couldn't help but memorize every detail of this woman's perfect figure…

She too seemed paralyzed and her own cheeks were darkening even as they sat there. She was less than ten feet from him. He could… _smell…_ her. A scent like melted sweets. He couldn't help it. His heightened sense of smell caused him to close his eyes in pleasure as he inhaled. He didn't know why this felt so… real… so… vivid. But he couldn't bring himself to move from that spot… He simply couldn't break the spell that he was under.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Armen turned into the room where the blond ninja had gone to sleep. He glanced across the room to the inset cubby where he was snoozing. Armen walked across to him, taking note that he slept curled up like a fox kit. Had he been a woman he was sure he'd be hugging the life out of him, but no… He was a man and he was already somewhat scared of this boy. Regardless of how harmless he looked right then.

He closed his eyes and spoke out loud. "Hey! Wake up. Master Jiraiya is ready for you to take over." Naruto didn't so much as twitch. Armen shifted and repeated himself a bit louder, but again, nothing happened.

"Well… I guess he really tired himself out. I'll go back and ask Jiraiya about whether or not to let him rest more… Two days really did seem like too long…"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Esdeath took in the boy's features. He was handsome with golden blond hair… which was quite unruly. His skin was a deep tan and she could tell that he was powerfully built, yet also slim. She let her eyes move upward, taking in his strange dress. A burnt orange and black jacket… appearing to be lightly armored. It was open in the front to show chiseled muscles covered by a black mesh shirt. At the same time he wore black pants and armored combat sandals.

She noted the white of scars that littered his body, testament to great injuries.

Their eyes met. His were a deep turbulent blue… his pupils were black slits that seemed to flicker as a candles flame. They were stunning and she felt… _something…_ in them, like a connection. A tie to those eyes or… perhaps a similarity.

The rest of his face was just as unique. His round face was handsome. Very handsome. His expression, which was currently trapped between confused and enchanted, was at once seductive and vulpine…. And cute. The three jagged black marks on either side of his cheeks only made this more pronounced.

Esdeath blinked as she saw his mouth open, exposing long canines. He breathed in and his eyes drifted closed. An expression of sultry enjoyment lingered there even as they opened again. Those blue tiger like eyes settled on hers with a kind of intensity that she'd never experienced before.

And then she heard his voice.

"W..who are you?"

It was deep and purring, as though he was speaking in the rich tribal tongues of the west. Yet she understood him perfectly. Though his accent was strong and foreign. It reminded her of nothing so much as a fox, yet she couldn't say why.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here…?" He trailed off, his eyes dropping lower for a second before rising to her face again. "And…. Why are you… naked?"

She blushed a deep scarlet, not knowing how to deal with this situation… And not understanding why she was so flustered. She didn't know this man… She didn't even know where this was. In fact she was supposed to be sleeping at that moment… So… this had to be a dream. Yes, that was it. This was just a dream.

So who was he? Why was this young man so vivid? And what had inspired this amazing image in the first place… She was in the middle of a _soon_ -to-be- _over_ war in the north. There had been no one who even looked like this young man. Especially not with his unique features… Not with those eyes. Not with that… Esdeath breathed in, catching a strong scent. She blushed harder. She didn't understand why but her stomach twisted hotly and she shivered at the animalistic quality his scent possessed.

Esdeath realized abruptly that she had…. Seemingly in an instant…. Become at least physically intoxicated by his mere presence. He felt…

…and there it was. Hovering in the background like a low hum. _**Power**_ …

This boy was dripping raw power. It saturated the air around him, settling in like dense fog. Her senses had been so saturated by it that it numbed her perception. It was incredible! Amazing that such an endless ocean of energy seemed to flow from him… She curled her fingers and bit her lip, her eyes fluttering closed as she allowed it to wash over her. She… had no earthly idea what was going on… but she couldn't be bothered to care. If this was a dream, it was both the strangest and most pleasant one she'd ever had.

"Who… are… you…?"

Her eyes snapped open as she felt a warm breath on her face and the tickle of hair in her face. He was right there, his blush receding ever so slightly as a look that perfectly mixed confusion and embarrassment, marred his face. Or.. not. She couldn't say that the expression of puzzlement didn't make him seem even more attractive…

Once again his question fell on her deaf ears without her mind being able to register the correct response. Who was she? Was she not the Great General of the Empire? The Ice Queen of the Emperor's military? Why did she feel like a shy maiden right now?!

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Armen came back out on deck as Jiraiya took a deep draft from a canteen on his belt. The Sanin gave him an odd look. "Eh? Where's that lazy student of mine? Don't tell me he went back to sleep."

"No… I let him sleep a bit more since I couldn't wake him. I figured he was more tired out from his duties manipulating the wind than we knew."

"Nah! You just have to be really insistent. Go smack him upside the head with something and he'll wake up. Got to do it hard though. The kid's head is hard enough to knock through stone… or so I've heard from certain people."

"I… guess." Armen turned back into the ship to wake Naruto for good this time."

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto leaned in close to her, feeling a bit embarrassed to be so close to such a beautiful and… very naked girl. But her eyes had closed and she had an almost blissful look that made his stomach do flips. What was that look for?

"Who… are… you?" He repeated gently, not wanting to startle her.

Her eyes flicked open and her cheeks and neck flushed an even deeper shade of red. Her lips parted as if to speak, but she paused. Then after a moment she asked, "Who are you?"

He tilted his head to the side. "I already asked three times… But… I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. Who are you?"

"Esdeath… of the Partas tribe… G..general of the Empire…" Her blush deepened, if it were possible, and she leaned forward… "What are you…. How… I'm dreaming aren't I?"

"I don't know about you.." Naruto hesitated as her nose was nearly touching his, but he didn't stop her from continuing. His skin was tingling with a cool sensation that was hard to ignore.. The feeling was far too pleasant, raising bumps on his arms. "I thought I was dreaming too… Are…" He trailed off for a moment, regaining the courage to speak. "Are you... real?"

She was still… matching him, their faces barely an inch apart. "Yes.. I am real… but… _what_ are _you?"_

"I'm…."

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

 **Dang! Cliff hanger!**

 **WHAT!**

 **But don't be too angry. I'm actually posting the next chapter right after this!**

 **((remember to review anyway!))**


	2. 2 - No Rest for the Wicked?

**And here is the new chapter as promised! Please don't be too mad at me for my long absence!**

 _ **Chapter 2: No rest for the… Wicked?**_

 **Ooo**

 **ooo**

Naruto woke with a start and a painful yelp as something large and weighty smacked him in the head. He rolled out of bed swinging, his arm and the kunai it held barely missed Armen's throat by inches. The man went stumbling backwards as Naruto let loose a savage growl and aimed to kill him…

Only to stop as he realized he wasn't under attack and this wasn't another one of his sensei's tests. He sheathed his weapon and stood, glaring balefully at Armen. The guy had just interrupted perhaps the most intense dream he'd ever had in his LIFE. He's been there on a snowy plateau with nothing but a naked girl. But not just any girl. The girl who was perhaps the most beautiful example of the female species he'd ever laid eyes on.

Not only that but she…

Naruto groaned in frustration. She said she was real! It felt REAL! Hell, he could even remember her smell…. Perfectly. And this bastard woke him up! He wasn't pissed, but he was aggravated. He wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep and see if he could re-connect with wherever that was. See if he couldn't keep talking to her. He couldn't explain it, but he wanted to hear her voice again. He wanted to taste her scent again… and he wasn't at all opposed to looking at such a stunning creature when she happened to be naked…

"I'm sorry Naruto! I didn't mean to do it so hard. It slipped out of my hand!"

Naruto was dragged back out of his thoughts by Armen who had shakily stood and seemed quite put out by the fact that Naruto almost killed him. The blond was about to smack him upside the head for being an ass…. When he remembered something.

" _Esdeath… of the Partas tribe… G..general of the Empire…"_

He suddenly smiled. That was it. She was real. She said she was a general in the Empire. And he only knew of one Empire at the moment and that was exactly where he was heading. _"Her name was Esdeath… of the Partas tribe. A general huh? Well I'll just have to track her down when we come ashore. I wonder if Armen knows the name…? Huh. I'll ask another time. I'm still annoyed that he woke me up just now…"_

Naruto gave the man a glare and, assuming that he woken to resume propelling the ship along, he moved out of the living quarters.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

General Esdeath, leader of the Empires greatest army, woke in her field tent to the sound of laughing soldiers. She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling… just looking up and watching the roof of the tent sway. Her tongue darted out to state her lips… The scent was gone but she still remembered it. She could imagine the musky aroma filling her nose and sending pleasurable shivers up her spine.

He'd disappeared.

That handsome young man with the amazing blue eyes and golden hair had vanished like smoke on the breeze just as he was about to answer her. She…. was pissed… Royally pissed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd blushed or the last time something had stirred her embarrassment like that. Did she even remember the last time?

It made her furious. No… not that it happened. The feeling its self was exhilarating. She liked it, wanted more of it, _needed_ to feel those emotions again… And most of all she wanted to know what that boy was. The pure, raw _power_ he had been almost dripping. She'd never met anyone who exuded such power, such unimaginable strength. It had been like a lake… no, an ocean of power. She'd felt small beside it. So very small.

She desired to be in that presence again, to feel that tide of energy wash over her, drown her senses in that hot current. He… he said his name was Naruto Uzumaki. A most unusual name to be sure. She wasn't at all certain that she'd heard either… ever. And she'd met thousands of people since she became part of the Capital's military. She didn't know where he came from. Probably a distant country, but… why had she not heard of him? Someone who could impart such a feeling through a mere _dream_ had to be famous in his homeland at least!

Esdeath shifted, naked under the thick blankets of her bed. A second later she sat up, her icy blue eyes taking in her tent. She was the strongest… and she had always been the strongest.

Now?

She'd encountered something that could swallow her power whole… and she wanted it. Wanted him. It was instinctual, the desire to take what she wanted. She had always wanted a man, yet she'd never met a single one other than Budo who could match her power…. And she would sooner commit ritual suicide than be with that man. But him? That innocent… yet undeniably feral look? The cast of his features, seeming ever the more foreign as she recalled them. The black flicker of the pupil set in those sapphire eyes. He was handsome, amazingly so… and in just the way she liked.

She didn't even know she liked that kind of man until she remembered that unruly blond hair and fox like… bordering on feline, curiosity. It didn't seem possible, but she… liked him. Wanted him. Like a lioness who seeks out the strongest mate she wanted him... and... this little war in the north?

It had become a hassle. A waste of time that could be much better spent elsewhere.

Esdeath slipped out of bed and was dressed in less than a minute, snatching her rapier and clipping it to her belt as she exited her tent. Once outside she raised her voice so that the entire camp could hear her. "PACK IT UP! WE END THIS TODAY OR I'LL END _YOU_ TOMORROW!"

 **Ooo**

 **-four days later-**

 **Ooo**

The breeze was slow and cool as the ship's captain guided it into dock. Being that Naruto, Jiraiya, and Armen were the only passengers, the departure was quick and silent. The captain of the vessel scarcely waved goodbye to them before they were gone and moving into the small seaside town. Jiraiya and Armen stood fairly close together, discussing their initial plans and where to go from here.

Naruto walked off to the side a bit, his eyes resting on them every few seconds before returning to his thoughts. He absently let his feet take him in the same direction as the two older men while he lost true sight of the street in front of him

Naruto took in a deep breath and imagined a sweetness on his tongue that wasn't there. It made no sense. Everywhere he felt the familiar sense of that girl from his dream. That girl who was very much real. He'd overheard Armen and his Godfather talking about the higher ups in the Capital… and 'Esdeath' was most certainly one of them, though Armen had admitted to not knowing her personally. Supposedly she was in the far north on a campaign to conquer the northern tribals… who had banded together into one nation.

He didn't know what to think of that… and even if he did, he couldn't really care. There was just something about _her._ Ever since that dream during the trip, he couldn't stop thinking about her. It was like an itch in the back of his mind that absolutely refused to be banished. At some points it was almost maddening. He'd feel a light breeze and his skin would abruptly go bumpy with the memory of her presence. Or he would hear a soft brushing noise and his imagination would conjure images of her thighs rubbing together as she crawled towards him… That alone was enough to make him stumble in the street, his cheeks going pink.

It was ridiculous that he was unable to get her out of his head. It was just a dream! But, at the same time, it wasn't. That much was obvious. Normal dreams didn't allow you to communicate with real life people from the other side of an ocean… and certainly not if you'd never even seen them before. Like how was his mind supposed to conjure up an accurate image of someone you've never seen before?!

Still… that was beside the point. It didn't seem important at the moment that it had happened… or why it happened… Only that he couldn't force the image of her out of his mind for five freaking minutes. Thoughts of her were like an invasive species of insect. Almost impossible to purge. Even at that moment, meandering down the street he could perfectly recall what she looked like… down to every little detail. It was insane how easy it was. And worst of all… or maybe best of all… He couldn't rightly tell which it was… He _wanted_ to see her again.

Badly. The desire to see her again was like a constant background hum and when his thoughts focused on her… as they did now, he had this warm pleasurable feeling in his chest that was _very_ hard to ignore.

This feeling… even if he'd been as dense as he used to be, it couldn't have been mistaken. This was like how he used to feel about Sakura… except a thousand times stronger. It didn't help that after their real meeting he'd dreamed of her… _really_ dreamed of her afterwards. It was enough to make him turn beat red. Her voice, soft and clear… yet strong and vibrant. He could imagine her whispering seductively in his ear…

" _Naruto-kun…"_

Naruto fondly imagined that he might walk straight into the side into a building so that he might knock himself out… and hopefully land back where ever that girl happened to be at the moment. How he wished he could just see her aga…."

"Hey brat! Watch where you're going!"

Naruto blinked and stumbled back, rubbing his temple. He looked up and found himself staring into the intricate steel chest plate of a soldier. His eyes traveled upward and his eyes widened. The man was huge, eight feet tall at least! He had grim yellow eyes and a square chin that could be used as a stone hammer. And he looked _pissed_.

"You watch it piss ant. Or I'll show you the back of my hand."

" _Who died and made you my superior?"_ Naruto easily reached out with his thoughts and brushed the man's. _"PTFH! This guy is weaker than Konohamaru! Who is he calling piss ant?!"_

Taking another step back Naruto reasserted his balance and gave the man a scolding look. "Sorry for bumping into you, but you don't have to be an asshole about it ya know." He rubbed his forehead and turned to follow Jiraiya who was still deep in conversation with Armen.

"Where the hell do you think you're going pipsqueak?! No one insults me. I'm the captain of the guard here!"

Naruto paused briefly, glancing around. A few people in the street had noticed the small confrontation, but most seemed to be in an evasive mindset. They skirted the two of them. Naruto considered telling the guy off but came to the conclusion that it was asking for trouble. _"Minds as well be diplomatic, even with this ass…"_ He bowed his head ever so slightly to him. "Sorry again, but I wasn't breaking any law and I did apologize…."

"You think that's enough?!" The man bellowed, now fully getting the attention of everyone on the street and turning Jiraiya and Armen around. "You think you can slander me in public?! I'll tell you something you insignificant insect, I am in charge around here and you need to be taught a lesson."

Jaw dropping, Naruto stared slack jawed at him for a second before his eyebrows drew down. "Okay…. Whoever you are. News flash. I just bumped into you by accident. If you want to fight about it I'll knock you into the middle of next year. I don't give a damn if you're a General! You need someone to pull that stick out that you have shoved up your ass!"

People in the street stopped and stare, apparently amazed by this declaration. Surprise and no small fear etched in their faces. Naruto didn't notice them anymore. He was thoroughly pissed at this guy and not just because of what the jerk was trying to pull…. But because his sixth sense was telling him that this guy _needed_ a lesson in humility. And after years of working with the best spy in the Elemental nations, he learned to trust his instincts. Some people just needed to get their asses handed to them before they could be decent to one another.

"Then you're challenging me to a dual?! Dueling isn't allowed you midget. Now unless you want me to drag your scrawny rear to the prison you better kneel in the dirt and tell me just how sorry you are!"

 **-WHAM!-**

Bones snapped like dry twigs as Naruto sent a fist into the man's face, breaking his jaw like kindling and sending his unconscious body into a wall on the other side of the street. Naruto dropped back to the street and spat on the ground. He growled low in his throat and turned away then, not bothering to lecture someone in manners who wasn't awake to hear him. Instead he strode back after Jiraiya and Armen, cursing under his breath about people who were so rude that the only way to show them the error of their ways was to knock them through a wall. He hated stubborn ass holes like that.

"You! You there! Halt!"

Naruto stop in his tracks and turned around. _"Fuck me… Not ten minutes off the boat and the goddess of luck is already trying to screw me over. I swear there better be some hell of a reward for all the shit I get these days."_ He groaned as the six men and women in armor… all of which looked strikingly similar to the guy he'd just downed… approached him at a jog, their swords drawn.

"You, state your name and the reason why you attacked the Captain!"

"He was being a Grade-A dickhead. That's why. He tried to arrest me just because I bumped into him." Naruto turned. "Ask him when he wakes up. I'm done here."

"HALT! You are not to move. In the name of the Emperor submit to the law and come with us. Then you _may_ file a report on what happened and how you managed to knock out a captain with a single punch."

Naruto looked into the eyes of the woman who was speaking and considered how to handle this. She seemed less of a bitch than her superior officer, but he did _not_ have time for this shit. And he sure wasn't in the mood for it right now. There was also the small detail where he was from another continent and _that_ would almost certainly make things more complicated than they were worth.

"How about no. I don't have time for this. I told you the truth and if you don't trust my word that's too bad for you." He turned and walked away saying, "…and if you try to stop me I'll knock all of you out too."

"…."

"Die then!"

Naruto effortlessly turned to the side as a sword blew past his face. His eyes met those of a young snarling man…. Who received a fist to the jaw and a chop to the side of the neck, knocking him out and backwards to land in a heap twenty feet away. Naruto felt as if he was swatting flies. What were these guys? They advertized every strike like this as some weird combat version of charades. It was a new kind of pathetic above and beyond how slow they were. And he wasn't even using chakra!

And the five other soldiers seemed to realize just how easy he'd dispatched the young man. Naruto capitalized on this. "This is only slightly harder than breathing you know. If you want to wake up in a few hours with a splitting headache and nothing to show for it… go ahead and attack me."

They looked at each other as if silently asking something. Naruto waited as they huddled together for a moment… then broke apart. The woman in charge nodded to a bearded man who looked to be the oldest of the group. Naruto's gaze shifted to him, taking in his huge frame and brutish appearance. He was almost as tall as the late captain. In one hand he held a large intricate hammer. It looked like it was made of some kind of ebony hued metal.

It didn't feel quite right.

The wielder of the black hammer stepped forward and swung the weapon around in slow loops. His eyes burning into Naruto. "I am Maklo, the strongest man on the western coast. Try not to die blond man."

Naruto tilted his head to the side as he tensed. Then stepped to the side as Maklo disappeared from where he'd been standing in a burst of speed. The hammer was thrust through the space Naruto's shoulder had occupied a moment before. _"He's about low Chunin level… Impressive in comparison to that pathetic captain.. but still way too slow to have a chance against me."_

"You're very quick boy."

"You have no idea." Naruto shot back as the hammer rocketed sideways but missed its target a second time. "Ten of you couldn't land a hit on me."

Maklo shook his head and stepped to the side, twisting his body and using the momentum to redirect his hammer to Naruto's kneecap. He continued to speak slowly the entire time. "You misunderstand boy. I am Maklo, wielder of Haipa-kanadzuchi and I will crush you."

Naruto casually dodged his next swing… and the next. He realized to some extent that it would be a bad idea to get hit by the black hammer, but Maklo was making things difficult for him.

You see, Naruto had a rather unique problem. He was massively overpowered. Just not in the same way as others. The problem as it were, was that that he could kill any bandit without using so much as a shred of chakra. And that punch he used on the captain had been at half physical power.

On the other side of the coin he could use chakra to vastly increase his fighting potential, but because of the sheer quantity of chakra he possessed… he couldn't control it very well at low levels. Thus he was like a power outlet. He was either off or on. It was only when he drew on large amount of his power that he gained any measure of fine control over himself. _But…_ that amount of power would turn this guard and all of his friends into red smears on the ground… _effortlessly._

But he couldn't go up against him using no chakra because he was just barely strong enough to dodge his strikes without chakra. This man was slower than a Chunin but only slightly stronger than a Genin. His speed was about the same as Sasuke's during the mission to Wave country. Much faster than a civilian…. But nothing compared to his speed and power. The very thing was… he could stomp most Genin without using any chakra so… how did he take this guy out without killing him outright. Any chakra laced punch would likely cause his organs to rupture and turn him into a ragdoll.

Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts by a shout and a lunge. He pumped chakra into his body as he'd been using absolutely none before and disappeared in a blur of speed.

Maklo's hammer crashed into the ground with the force of a minor Dragon type jutsu, leaving a huge crater. The guardsman's eyes were wide and darting back and forth. He hadn't been able to stop his momentum when the blond kid suddenly vanished from in front of him.

"I hope you're stronger than I think you are…."

Maklo's face turned to the side just in time to see the fist crash into him. His hammer flew from his grip as a shock rippled through his body and he was blasted backwards by the impact of the strike. He coughed up blood as his back hit the stone wall of a nearby building. His mind reeled and pain exploded through his whole right side. He thought that every rib on the whole side might have been shattered. And as he drew in a breath he could feel a sucking sensation coming from inside his chest. At the same time he couldn't feel his arm at all… and he was losing feeling in his face.

" _Gods above… how strong is he?!"_ Maklo raised on hand to wipe at the blood now pouring from his mouth. _"I was mistaken. He is by far the stronger. I allowed myself to be overconfident now that I wield a Teigu… But this boy only hit me once!"_

"Now… do _you_ understand?" The blond moved forward. "I didn't want to fight. I was minding my own business when I ran into your captain. And now you attack me for defending myself? What kind of guards are you?" He growled. "Now… I want you to know that I put as little power into that punch as I can. But if you try to attack me again I'll hit you hard enough to kill you outright. I said I didn't have time for this and now I have even less.."

He turned away and started walking. "I'll be going now."

Maklo couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to, but the rest of the guards surged forward. The blond turned on his heel, his eyes blazing. He took in a deep breath and brought his hands together in a harsh clap. And from the collision, a massive gust of wind exploded outward, sending the guards tumbling head over heels down the street. Even the civilians were thrown like cards in a strong breeze, barely avoiding injury as they were tossed away.

"Damn idiots. I'm not in a good mood anymore! So fuck off before I blow a few houses away!"

Naruto whirled around and angrily stomped back to where Jiraiya and Armen were waiting. His sensei look aggrieved while Amren was pale. (but then again, the guy was usually pale these days) He paid no mind to them and walked right past, continuing on his way out of the village before something ticked him off even more.

The two men glanced down the street to where the men and women, guard and civilian alike, were just picking themselves up. Then back to where Naruto was walking ahead of them. Armen was the first to speak. "Um… Lord Jiraiya? Is there something wrong with him? He seems to have a very short fuse and it's becoming shorter by the day."

"I've noticed that too, but I don't know what to say about it. Naruto usually confides in me so if I had to guess he's just agitated about this whole war thing."

"I simply hope that he doesn't do anything like that once we reach the capital. That would be a disaster." Armen shook his head quickly and tugged at Jiraiya's sleeve. "Let us leave before the guards collect themselves and decide to arrest us as well." Jiraiya nodded and they followed after Naruto quickly… or at least as quickly as Armen could move, which wasn't at all fast in comparison.

" _I wonder what has gotten into you Naruto… You usually aren't this short tempered even when you're restless. I know we were on a ship for more than a week with nothing to do but fill the sails, but this is a bit much."_

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Thirty minutes later Jiraiya and Armen caught up with Naruto in a small clearing. The blond boy had his arms crossed and his eyes closed as he rested against a tree. They both approached, but Armen stopped at the look on Naruto's face. The expression was the very purest definition of confusion that either had ever seen. Or… well, that Armen had seen. Jiraiya still remembered how Lord Third used to be with the old team 7. But that was another story.

Both men paused and Jiraiya's eyebrow raised as a slight flush that suddenly colored Naruto's cheeks. The blond shifted slightly and the Sanin realized, somewhat belatedly, that Naruto was asleep. _"Huh? He just leaned against a tree and decided to take a nap? I thought he…"_

Armen nudged him and asked loudly. "What's he doing now? Didn't he just beat two men to a bloody pulp because we're in a hurry?! Why is he sleeping?!"

"No idea… but the kid has been acting weird ever since I sent you to wake him up the other day. When I asked him to proofread the latest chapter in my novel he just gave me this odd look and didn't answer."

"…"

Jiraiya frowned dangerously. "It's not just smut."

"…"

"Nevermind." Jiraiya shook his head and walked over to his snoozing student.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Blue on blue… Sapphire to lapis lazuli. Ocean to sky. They stared at each other for nearly ten minutes before either of them was able to move or speak past the lumps in their throats. Naruto, swallowing hard, managed a husky, "Hi… again…"

The woman's face across from him suddenly broke into a wide smile. Her white teeth showing through. "Indeed."

Neither spoke for several seconds, but eventually Naruto licked his lips and glanced away from her. "I uh… still don't know what happened, but I haven't seen you the last few times I slept…" His gaze flicked back to her semi-nude form, his heart pounding in his own ears. He just.. couldn't keep his eyes off her. The moment he'd dozed off and found himself here, he knew. This was the same as the first. This was another meeting. But what did he say?

"You're name was Naruto Uzumaki."

"Uh… yeah.. and yours was Esdeath.. Partas right?"

"It is."

She nodded, her cheeks steadily darkening. Naruto wasn't a fool anymore not to notice and blushed as well, his eyes dropping momentarily to her perfect breasts. He mentally cursed his godfather for turning him into a perv… while at the same time thanking him for it. He coughed. "You're real…"

Blue eyes sharpened. "So are you… I think." Her blush deepened, either from embarrassment or arousal. He couldn't tell which. "It would be quite unsettling for me to be falling for a delusion…" She stood and stalked closer to him, seeming to ignore the fact that she was almost completely naked. And when she was only a few feet from him she sat down, bringing herself to his level again. "Tell me something… boy from my dream… do you feel the same irrational desire to be with me as I do for you?"

Naruto blinked. "Wha…?!"

She leaned in closer, her voice sinking into his mind like hot water from a hot spring. "Do you…

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto was jarred awake by a large hand pushing him over. He started and flung his arms out to catch his balance. He fell sideways and rolled to his feet, already preparing for an incoming attack….

Then he saw Jiraiya grinning slightly. "Having a good dream kid?"

Naruto blinked.

Now Naruto Uzumaki had been pissed at his sensei many times in the last three years. When his sensei had thrown his off the edge of a cliff into a nearly endless ravine just to unlock his chakra… he'd been pissed. He'd been angry when his teacher decided to take all of his money to go and spend time at an infamous brothel for a week. He was furious when Jiraiya took an entire month to just teach him how to give what he called a massage… but what he personally thought was only an extremely advanced seduction technique.

Not that he was anything more than grateful that he knew the technique now….

But that wasn't the point. Right now he was _livid._ Jiraiya had just interrupted his dream, his meeting with the stunning girl who he _simply couldn't_ stop thinking about. He'd bulldozed right in and cut it off right as it was getting interesting…. She'd been leaning in to ask… to say _something…_ and…

BANG!

He was right back here with that grinning idiot who had the nerve to consider himself a Sanin. Naruto honestly didn't know what was wrong with him. Jiraiya had interrupted him when he was flirting with girls before. In fact he seemed to be getting revenge for all the times he'd been interrupted himself.

But right now…? He didn't know why he was so… _otherworldly_ pissed. He wanted to rip the old man a new one and then shove the old one up the new one so far that he was TALKING CRAP ABOUT HIMSELF!

 _Pissed_ did not even begin to describe the feeling of knowing that he might have to wait another week.. or even longer… to see that _girl…_ He'd been waiting and waiting to see her in a dream again. Every single night he didn't see her in that strange meeting place, he dreamed of her in other ways… He couldn't get her out of his head and he _knew_ with almost every fiber of his being… that she was the one for him…

And Jiraiya woke him up.

Fucking old man _woke him UP?!_

" **Old man…. You have some serious explaining to do…"**

Jiraiya and Armen jumped at the cold furious demonic voice. It was filled with so much rage that is boiled over and spilled from his skin. Red mist seemed to be leaking from every pore.

"I uh… you were sleeping… and we have places to be." Jiraiya stammered out, a bit shocked that Naruto was actually radiating the Kyuubi's chakra out like that… just because he was woken up.

What had the kid so pissed all of a sudden?

" **You have three seconds to promise me that you will never wake me up without a GOOD reason again…. Before I tear your balls off and feed them to you."**

Jiraiya watched in horror as the Biju cloak solidified around Naruto. The blazing blue eyes bled crimson in an instant, followed by his tiny claws morphing into talons. Behind him three tails of solid bubbling chakra tore free of the cloak.

" _Oh shit...!"_

" **One…"**

Armen had flattened himself against a nearby tree and looked like he was about to pass out from the sheer killing intent.

Jiraiya had gone very pale… very _very_ pale. He didn't know what he'd done wrong?! Had the kid been having some kind of paradise dream or something? Why was he calling on the Kyuubi's chakra because of a dream!? And why in Kami's name was he threatening to rip his nuts off?!

" **Two…"**

Jiraiya fell to the ground in a profound prostration. "Please spare my balls gaki! I'll never wake you up again on my word!"

Naruto's eyes regarded him with a silent condemnation that more than rivaled anything Tsunade had _ever_ leveled on him. Jiraiya had a strong urge to faint from terror. He'd never seen this side of the kid before. He'd never actually been terrified of him. Not like this. It was like Naruto was threatening to murder him for waking him up!

Abruptly Naruto's violent aura dissipated and he straightened. Armen collapsed in a dead faint just as Jiraiya looked up.

Just as he did so, Naruto's foot met his chin and sent him into the tree Armen had just been flattened against. He let out a cry that sounded oddly like a croak and collapsed on top of the unconscious man. Naruto growled. "You damn well better keep that promise old man… or on the graves of my parents I will make sure you never can get laid in your life." His eyes faded back to blue and he glanced at Armen's body under Jiraiya's. "…You're carrying him."

Jiraiya, the third member of the Legendary Sanin gulped as Naruto turned on his heel and started to walk away. _"What the hell just happened?!"_

 **Ooo**

The tent, formerly belonging to General Esdeath Partas… along with a two hundred foot circle of land around it, was the a frozen wasteland. However at its center, the nearly nude form of the young woman rested on a bed of ice for several moments with one pale arm covering her eyes. Then she sat up, her cold blue orbs taking in the ice around her….

She was pissed. Royally pissed. She'd never known she could be this angry until her long awaited dream meeting with that blond haired young man was cut short _again…_ Her cheeks reddened as she thought of him, even as her eyebrows drew together in fury at the interruption.

Someone needed to _die_ …

 **Ooo**

 **-one week later-**

 **Ooo**

Jiraiya watched his student and godson with a wary eye. The blond's foul temper had lasted for the last few days. He seemed to be _extraordinarily_ irritated. Even now Naruto was muttering under his breath about something. The older Shinobi thought that he might be able to make out what it was if he used chakra to heighten his hearing… but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what his godson was thinking.

The last seven days had been like a sort of ritual. Everyone woke up at their accustomed times, save for Naruto who slept in late one of those nights. Then over breakfast they talked about the politics of this country and how everything worked. It was mostly information about various officials, what they did, and how they were important. After that they would get on the road, continuing they way towards the Imperial capital. Armen and he would speak more on the road about the state of the Capita and what he knew of the Revolution. Likewise he would tell Armen a little about the Elemental nations, though nothing about each individual village.

It was strange though. Whenever Armen mentioned the Capital's generals… the woman known as Esdeath in particular, Naruto would perk up. Jiraiya hadn't seen anything overly suspicious, but he swore that once he saw Naruto giving Armen a look that… had the man caught it... he would have died instantly. If he recalled correctly Armen had been recounting some unpleasant rumors about the General.

Maybe Naruto was still pissed at Armen about something though… With how erratic he was behaving it was hard to tell.

Jiraiya honestly didn't know what to think about Naruto's temper. It seemed to have magically appeared shortly after they met Armen. Sure he'd had a temper before and he was _always_ quick to anger… but he'd never been this much of a hair trigger.

And the last time he'd blown up on him had been when he's made him learn how to give expert massages so he could seduce women for him…. Still, that hadn't been anywhere near a fraction of the anger that had been directed at him a week ago. _"I wonder what's going on inside the kid's head. Maybe he was daydreaming about that Sakura girl or something…. But I thought he got over her a long time ago…?"_

He shook his head and kept walking… only to pause in his steps for a brief moment. A high pitched noise alerted him to something behind him. He glanced back to see a small wagon behind them being pulled by two small horses. There were two men on top of it, one holding the reigns. Jiraiya dismissed them as one man waved to him in greetings.

He waved back and turned to continue on his way, still deep in thought.

 **Ooo**

Meanwhile Naruto grumbled to himself. He'd had another very distracting dream the night before and… as seemed to be constant… he couldn't stop thinking about _his_ girl.

He didn't know when he started thinking about the strange girl like that. She was a General of the Empire who… if Armen was to be believed, commanded thousands of men. He was hesitant to believe him though… with all the awful things he said about her. He claimed she was a homicidal psychopath who took great pleasure in torturing her enemies to death…

Naruto's hand clenched. She _wasn't_ like that! He could feel such a strong connection to her. Like his soul was tied to hers. He blushed every time he thought about her moving closer to him… crawling naked across the ground. Her scent teased him at the same time… No! She couldn't be like that. He refused to believe that she was some cold hearted murderess. She would be his as soon as he could find her. Then he'd prove Armen how stupid he was to believe such rumors!

Esdeath was so… perfect… Sure he could see the ruthlessness in her eyes… in the cast of her features. But he couldn't exactly say he was any different with his enemies. It wasn't something he hid these days. He was no longer that pure minded little boy who tried to save everyone no matter how evil they were.

-crack—

Besides! He wouldn't find himself attracted to her if she was evil, some horrible twisted person. He couldn't have so utterly fallen for her if she was as Armen described. His mind wouldn't reach out to her when he slept if she were some… monster…

-Crack-

He could feel that she was good, that she was… that she was _his._ Naruto closed his eyes as a warm ball churned in his chest, making the smallest of smiles twitch over his lips. He couldn't wait to dream of her again… to speak with her uninterrupted across whatever distance separated them… Or even better, to see her in the flesh to touch those pink lips… He was sure they would be so soft... against his own…

-CRACK!-

Naruto was jerked out of his daydream as the ground under him exploded under him. It shattered upwards in an explosion of dirt and stone.

Fifteen feet behind him Jiraiya and Armen, who noticed what was happening a few seconds before it did, felt a sudden shiver go up their spines. Both of them had the same frightening flashback from the other day.

Even further behind them the two wagon drivers went pale from the double scare of the oppressive aura… and the massive monster rising from the ground thirty feet from them. They shouted in terror and abandoned the wagon running out of range. The horses had the same idea and turned the vehicle around, trotting away as quickly as they could.

And a ways behind the wagon a young man saw the rising figure of a Danger beast and grinned.

Back with the, now extremely annoyed, blond. Naruto was doing his best not to get eaten. He dodged upwards, but the strange… insect-like beast followed him at a startling pace. His eyes twitched in anger and he pumped enough chrakra into his right leg to knock over a structure roughly the size of the Hokage's tower…

…and kicked.

Everyone watched as the blond boy lashed out with one foot and connected with the snout of the massive creature… Abruptly, as if a thirty ton hammer had hit it, the monster's head snapped down, blood exploding out from every gap in its plate armor. The force of the kick having turned its insides to mush. Then the blond's hands came together and a blast of what looked like white blades, crashed into it.

The effect was tremendous and bloody.

The monster was rent limb from limb, pulverized, shredded… All but obliterated. Noxious blood splattered everywhere, raining down and covering the ground around in red. Chunks rained down as well, falling with slick squelching sounds.

Wide eyed shock from all but one of the observers heralded the blond landing amid the eviscerated remains of the beast. Blood drenched him from his waist down and splattered upwards in patches from there. Naruto glared at them briefly before he looked back to the… mess that he'd made. It covered one whole part of the road.

"Grr… now I'm soaked." He muttered and started forming handseals at a rapid rate, finally ending them and closing his eyes. Everyone watched as a large orb of water formed over his head, seeming to be taken from the very air around him. Then it dropped onto him from above. He then pulled off his shirt and pants with everyone watching and turned to walk into the woods on the left side.

"…"

"…"

Jiraiya and Armen stood frozen. The non Shinobi gulped, his head turning to the older man. "He… he just did that…"

"Kid never did understand discretion when he was angry…"

Both jumped as a shout came from behind them. "That was AWESOME!" they turned around slowly as a young man jogged up to them. "Hey! That was unbelievable! How did he do that?! Is he with you two?!"

Jiraiya would normally have said something along the lines of. _"Of course he is! After all he is my student and I taught him everything he knows!"_ But under the circumstances he didn't even think about such a retort. In fact his mind was completely blank besides…

"Who are you kid?"

"Oh! Sorry, my name is Tatsumi! I'm heading to the Capital! Are you guys going there too?!"

Armen and Jiraiya shared a glance. This kid seemed a bit too excited and they couldn't be sure of what to say after that… display. Naruto was supposed to be keeping undercover to an extent. Sure it wasn't an absolute mandate of their self assigned mission. Their goal was to find out the state of the Capital and decide what, if anything, should be done about it. However Naruto had just used a chakra based technique that would automatically be labeled as an Imperial Arms by anyone who knew of their existence.

This kid might not know, but… well things seemed to be getting a bit out of control. They certainly were having difficulties controlling Naruto.

Speaking of which.

"Hey old man. I'm cleaned up. Let's keep going. We'll be in the capital by the end of tomorrow if we keep up this pace."

"That's awesome! We're heading in the same direction"

Naruto cast his gaze over to the newcomer. "Uh.. who are you?"

"My name is Tatsumi. I'm from a village in the south west and I'm going to the capital to make it big! I bet you're doing the same thing right!? You're probably some elite warrior looking to join the army!"

The kid's excitement could only be compared to Naruto's own two years hence. But Naruto had a serious cool down after that, which led to his new somewhat calmer attitude. Still he could still be overexcited… But this kid… he was almost Naruto's age and he was still like this? Jiraiya sighed as Naruto crossed his arms.

"Not really. I'm already part of the military, just not this one."

Tatsumi's expression seemed to crack… only to reform into an even more excited one. "Oh…. Wait, what other military?!"

"That's for me to know and you to probably never find out." Naruto said bluntly.

Jiraiya resisted the urge to face-palm. Did his godson really just say that? It made his out to be part of some special operations unit like the ANBU. This kid would be over all three of them like bandits on the trail of a merchant caravan.

Then Naruto shrugged. "It's not something were allowed to talk about even if we wanted to tell you… which we don't so…"

"Oh…" Tatsumi breath in a low whisper. "I get it… real under the table stuff. I understand..." He grinned and jumped ahead of them. "Hope I see you in the Capital when you're done with your mission maybe we could spar!"

Naruto gave a lazy thumbs up and turned on his heel. His eyes settled on Jiraiya and Armen. A slight smile hovered about his lips. "Now… Pervy Sage…"

" _Thank kami he stopped calling me old man. He only does that when he's ticked off at me… so maybe he's calming down."_

"…next time warn me when the ground underneath my feet is about to explode in my face. I might have a better sense of smell than you, but you have better hearing." Naruto frowned. "Can we get going now? Before we find any more copies of my twelve year old self?"

"Right…" Jiraiya nodded. "That would be a great idea."

Armen coughed lightly. "Uh… Am I the only one who thinks we should do something about the _enormous_ mess in the road?"

Both Shinobi gave him a blank stare that said three things. First, why should they care? Second, why should he care? And third, weren't they supposed to be moving quickly?

"Of course… pardon me for thinking that." Armen sweat-dropped at their perfectly blank expressions. Exactly how were they able to do that? Was it some manner of short range telepathy? Regardless of that is was a bit freaky and made his unnaturally opposed to doing anything that might piss them off. Not that he wasn't already scared shitless of doing something to make either one of them angry at him. After all… if the boy was willing to rip his balls off for waking him up… what would either of them do for some more serious incident?

And that wasn't counting the fact that he hadn't given them a fraction of the information they needed to understand the political landscape of the Capital. There simply wasn't enough time to give them that much information… Also he realized again… and again…. That he kept thinking that they were here to help him.

They weren't.

Both of them were here on the behalf of their own nation, deciding just how much of a threat Honest was and how long they could afford to ignore the Capital and the Empire. Then if they decided that there wasn't anything back home that was more important… _then_ they would _consider_ helping him. It was exactly how his wife had been.

She had to know all the risks before she flung herself into something. It was just the way she'd been raised. And those two were no different. Hell! He couldn't even be sure that they wouldn't leave if they thought that the problem was too big for them. Sure they had hearts. They felt the pain of others. He'd felt and seen that in them. But both of them were also coldly practical people who calculated gain against loss with an experienced eye. If they knew they couldn't do something, they wouldn't…

Armen realized then… that he'd been left behind….

"Hey! Wait for me!"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

The click of heels and the stiffening of sentries heralded the coming of a General. The swish of a sheathed blade at the hip, the rubbing of crisp fabric, and the subtle clicking of knuckles as fists were opened and closed.

General Esdeath had arrived.

The Ice Queen of the North, as she was just now being called for the first time, strode down the main hall of the Capitals mighty Imperial Palace. Her sapphire blue hair was behind her, rippling in a wave as she passed row after row of guards, who did nothing to stop her. They knew why as well as she. She was strong… The second strongest General in the Capital and therefore recognized as the second strongest being alive… besides the Emperor of course, but he was still a child so no one counted him unless they were at court.

The fact was that there were dozens of formalities that were "required" simply to enter the main throne room of the palace. But Esdeath bypassed them all without so much as a glance. And the guards who usually attended to their duty with firm hands and sharp sword… didn't do more than stiffen and keep their eyes forward.

It only took one time for those in the palace to get the message. Esdeath might have been vicious but _no one_ could say she wasn't efficient.

The woman, who had every right to be feared, continued down the hall at a brisk pace. No one realized… and even the keenest observer would have been hard pressed to notice that… she was paying absolutely no attention to her surroundings… what… so… ever…

A child with a wooden stake could have killed her if a child with such courage existed in the world. For General Esdeath's mind as not currently in the land of the living. Her thoughts were… elsewhere. Much like a certain young man had been quite completely distracted earlier, she couldn't seem to focus on the mundane tasks of life for more than a few minutes…

Esdeath sighed inwardly. She wondered… she wished… But most of all she was tired. She thought nothing could be more pleasing that to get to her personal chambers and crawl into bed and sleep.. Provided of course that she could meet her…. Could she call him her lover? No… she couldn't… _yet._

Well, if she counted the _other_ dreams she was having every time she closed her eyes for more than twenty minutes… then yes, she could easily say they were lovers… She hoped fervently that the real him, when they finally met, would be up to the task of equaling her imagined version of him. A small smile quirked one side of her lips. _"In bed at least… I hope he's good with his hands…_ " A cold blush might have stained her cheeks at the thought of that, but she could control herself at least that much.

Never mind that she defiantly thought she would lose it when she met him in person.

Oh… how much had _that_ meeting crossed her mind. How many times had she imagined meeting him? She thought she'd planned and rehearsed every single possible outcome… Okay… so maybe she hadn't strategized for what she would do if he was sitting on the Emperor's throne when she arrived… but she decided if it happened, she wouldn't be complaining… Indeed, she wouldn't complain if she met him in battle and they were on opposite sides…

Since she'd abandon the capital before so much as laying a finger on… _her_ man… with the intent to harm.

A month ago she would have asked herself where this sudden… disloyalty to the Empire had come from. A month ago she might have wondered why she was willing to toss away everything she had earned for a boy she'd only seen in a dream… for less than ten minutes.

She was past asking such stupid questions at this point.

Every time she closed her eyes she saw some… part… of her fantasies. Naruto… His name was like a burning torch in the back of her mind that wouldn't go out. She couldn't stop thinking about him! It was like nothing she'd ever experienced before.

She remembered again the pleasure she'd felt when he recalled her name… the syllables of her name on his lips… the foreign way he'd pronounced it. Even the hesitation in remembering her clan… She couldn't find fault with any of it… And if he'd mispronounced her first name… she would have been highly tempted to change it. Esdeath inwardly paused at that…

Maybe she was getting a bit too… well what was she saying? Was she willing to do _anything_ for this boy she hadn't even shaken hands with?

" _Hell yes…"_

Esdeath's cold exterior broke somewhat as a true smile, seeming predatory to those around her, formed on her lips. Her eyes acquired the quality of a huntress seeking her prey and her fingers twitched at the hilt of her blade. As soon as she was done with this… _meeting…_ she wasn't going to sleep. She was going out to find him… Find him so she could…

Esdeath blushed crimson within the confines of her own mind… So Naruto could do _things…_ to her.

A few short minutes later the doors to the Imperial throne room opened before her and she walked in, every inch the General. The eyes of every man in the room turned to her, some in shock, while others only paled slightly. None of them, save their oblivious Emperor, could quite restrain the urge to shudder.

Esdeath was smiling. And the expression was somehow wrong on her exquisite features.

The assembled captains to the Imperial army and the varied administrative officials all stood quite still as Esdeath paced across the room without a sliver of hesitation, only stopping when she reached the first step up to the throne. Then she made an elegant bow, her head tipped downward ever so slightly. She might have served the Emperor… but she still had an inherent dislike of bowing to _anyone._

"Ah!? General Esdeath! I didn't expect you for weeks! Possibly a month or more!"

The Emperor's voice rang out across the hall, high pitched and surprised. Esdeath waited several seconds, as was the norm to allow the Emperor to be absolutely finished speaking, before she made her reply.

"It was taking too long."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees… and for once she wasn't even to blame. Everyone besides the Emperor had felt a chill running up their backs. _They_ personally hadn't expected to see her back in "months". How long had it taken her to destroy the supposedly unbeatable northern alliance? This ending beat even her own impossible estimate by a full fourteen days! And that wasn't counting her return. The north must have been conquered more than a week prior to this if she was here now!

To those assembled it seemed… to put it bluntly… that she did the impossible on a whim now. Even Honest was somewhat frightened of the possibilities. Sure she had been loyal to a fault thus far, but if something _ever_ happened before that he would have to use his secret weapon on her. There would be no other choice. No assassin in the world would take out General Esdeath… At least, none that he had ever heard of in the last thousand years!

"Excellent!" Was the Emperor's reply. "This is far ahead of schedule and you have returned alone? I suppose you left your army to settle things and return?"

"It is just so my Emperor."

"Great!" He smiled that innocent smile of his, the polar opposite of her own, and flicked his eyes to Honest. "See that she is paid accordingly to her efforts! The original reward, plus twenty percent for ending it in half the time that my best advisor estimated!"

Esdeath closed her eyes. "That is not necessary."

The room suddenly stilled. The Emperor blinked in surprise. "Um… you don't want the gold?"

"No… I have no interest in it. If you feel the need to reward me… send the money to my troops upon their return. However…" Her head rose, eyes opening to meet the Emperor's. "I have a personal favor to ask instead."

"Of course! What is it you desire?"

Esdeath didn't even hesitate. "It has come to my attention that there is a certain man I _must_ find. I would like an unspecified amount of time to look for him… immediately."

Now _this_ shocked everyone… and more than a few prayed quietly for the poor man's soul…

Behind the emperor's throne Honest stepped forward and whispered in his ear. The Emperor's eyes widened and his mouth form that kind of O that meant he'd realized something rather important. The young ruler turned his eyes back to Esdeath, face somewhere between innocent resolve and apology. "I'm sorry General Esdeath, but I can't grant that at this time. You see there is a terrorist organization which has killed dozens of important figures since you left. It is imperative they are eliminated quickly. I'm afraid I don't know how long it would take for you to find this man you speak of… so I cannot grant that request…"

At Esdeath's expression the Emperor… and everyone else in the room… and several people who were nearby at the time in completely different rooms... winced.

"That is… unfortunate…" Esdeath's voice was filled with a kind of sweetness… it permeated her tone like cold permeates the ground in the far north. Her eyes locked, not on to the Emperor, but on to Honest.

The man immediately began to have second thoughts and leaned in to whisper to the Emperor again, but backed off as the Emperor leaned forward as well. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but this must be done for the good of the Empire. Is there anything else you might want instead? I'm still willing to grant your first request as soon as you destroy the terrorists."

Esdeath frowned. "There are… a few things… though not as important to me at the moment…"

"And they are?"

She seemed to deliberate for a moment. "I would like to visit the vault where the Imperial Arms are kept and take one of my choice. In addition to that… if I must destroy these rebels first… then I would like a year off as the reward for doing so."

The Emperor blinked again… "For what purpose would you want another Imperial arms… which you couldn't use… and a year off? Is this because of the man you mentioned?"

All who were present were witness to something that had been deemed impossible to achieve.

Esdeath blushed scarlet. "Yes."

Honest could not contain his curiosity. "And what relation is this man to you?"

"He will be… my husband…"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Seven figures stood around a large rectangular table. They whispered among themselves for several minutes, their tones, those of a conspirator. Each radiated an aura of power and… efficiency. They were assassins. They were killers. They were… on the hunt. And before the week was out, their plans would be executed and their targets eliminated.

"Everyone!" They turned to regard their leader. "Tomorrow we strike at midnight!"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

 **And here is the end to the second chapter. Now… as is customary for any good reader of fanfiction, a review is appreciated and to a certain extent expected! And remember, just like in the last chapter of Sealing Twilight that I posted, I want honest reviews. Not just you guy and girls telling me how great my story is.**

 **If you think there is something wrong, something that needs changed, or even a verbal tick that I've forgotten to use… please mention it. Every little bit helps!**

 **So again… please review! And thank Vexacus905 for all the ideas he's provided to keep this story going!**


	3. 3 A Somewhat less than Chance Encounter

**Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Welcome to FanFiction!**

 **Tonight we have a little treat, for the first time in a while the esteemed author has been able to post an update. And what an update it is! The third chapter of Incarnation! Now… without further adieu… the reader responses…**

 **SHONENJUMP Guy** **: Yes Naruto is being a bit of an ass in the last chapter, however I have been trying to get across to readers just how unnaturally strong the connection between him and Esdeath already is. And yes… I made Naruto less of a "pussy" than he is in Canon. In this story if someone pisses him off he will not hesitate to "fuck them up!"**

 **doomqwer** **: The connection between Naruto and Esdeath will be fully explained much later on. Don't hold your breath cause it's a major plot point. I didn't just decide to use the dream sequence rout just because it's cool.**

 **dsuohbijk** **: Do you really even have to ask?**

 **(two different people)** **: If you don't like my jutsu fine… Dislike my jutsu all you want. I think they sound alright. But if you're so retentive that you can't read my story simply because of the jutsu names… well that you're problem. And no… I am not going to translate every jutsu into Japanese when some of them may only be used once in the whole story.**

 **Paradoxity** **: Hey man don't feel bad. A lot of guys like romance more than their masculinity should strictly allow. I'm the same way. I'm at the point where I don't even want to read a story if there isn't any romance in it. Action is great, but if that's all you want… watch a movie. That way you can at least see the explosions.**

 **Guest** **: It's hit and miss. No.. I won't make her submissive (in bed at least) all the time. But Naruto and Esdeath are on even terms. He has to have his time on top too ya know!**

 **Finally An Avalable Username** **: Yes… Naruto can be a bit ruthless in this story. But that is partially because I have Jiraiya actually teach him like he damn well should have been taught in canon. And not just jutsu and fighting skills. But also teaching Naruto how the world works and getting rid of Naruto naiveté. (also I fucking love your username)**

 **Now… on to the story!**

 **(I don't own any part of Naruto or Akame ga Kill)**

 _ **Chapter 3: A Somewhat Less Than Chance Encounter**_

 _ **Ooo**_

 _ **Ooo**_

There were many things in the world that had shocked Naruto in his life. The first and foremost had been that… ramen existed… The food of the Gods! And then less than a week later that… for _some_ reason, not everyone loved the "food of the Gods" as much as he did.

That and _many_ other things paled into insignificance now.

Why?

"The Capital is… HUGE!"

He simply could not believe that something could be so massive as to cover everything in sight! And he meant everything. Even the distant mountain in the distance was actually the Imperial Palace! Armen and Jiraiya glanced at each other. The Sanin was dumbstruck. Armen just sighed. "I thought I told the both of you that the capital was massive…"

Naruto whirled around. "Massive?! One of the Hidden villages is massive! This place is as big as ten of them in one place!" He turned back around gazing at the titanic spires of marble that rose high into the sky in the distance. "This city is… Hell! The Kyuubi might need a whole day to destroy this place! It's colossal!"

Armen swallowed hard at that and glanced towards Jiraiya.

"Don't ask."

He didn't, but turned back to the blond. "Hey! It might be night time, but there are still guards about. I'm not sought after but I'm still not strictly allowed to be here. And you both have said repeatedly that you shouldn't draw attention to yourselves."

Naruto suddenly became very quiet as if responding to his warning. His body was very still. Armen sighed. "Good then let's find an Inn for the night. I am very sore from all this traveling…"

"Jiraiya."

The Sanin's head snapped to Naruto's who's own gaze had been drawn to the side. Naruto never called him by his name unless he was _very_ serious about something. It was almost a watchword for danger or readiness.

"What is it Naruto?"

"Blood… I smell lots of blood. And… rot…" His nose scrunched up in disgust. "It was faint, coming from the east… but as soon as I heightened my sense of smell it became overpowering. It's like one of Orochimaru's labs… only the scent of decay is stronger. It smells like a prison and a torture room mixed together…"

Jiraiya frowned and turned to Armen. "Know what it might be?"

"I don't…" He was also pale, but from the description, not the scent. He couldn't tell what they were talking about. He smelled nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly nothing rotten, nor the iron tang of fresh blood. "I don't smell anything wrong and I don't know why you would. This is a residential district, not an area with a prison or anything like that. In fact the area we're in isn't far from the homes of the moderately wealthy."

Naruto scowled. "I feel something bad…" He jumped over to Armen and bit his thumb. "Hold out your hand."

"What?"

"Just do it."

Armen nodded and gave Naruto his hand, watching as the boy drew on his skin using his fresh blood as ink. It disgusted him but he didn't move, already knowing this was a skill Shinobi like them possessed. Naruto finished a few moments later and spoke under his breath.

" _Fuin!"_

The blood shimmered and dried in an instant. Naruto looked up into his eyes. "Don't rub it off got it."

Armen nodded again and Jiraiya put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, me and Naruto are going to see what's going on. You go find yourself a room for three at an Inn and leave word that we will be arriving. That mark will allow us to find you easily enough. Now go."

The older man gave him a light push and…. Seeming melted away into the night's shadows. Armen watched for a second and then jogged off to find the nearest Inn. He hoped fervently that they didn't do anything to get themselves in trouble. It would not go well for them as a whole if they did…

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto's eyes took in the scope of the mansion… It was huge. Almost the size of Hokage's tower, but not round in shape, and it had a far different kind of aesthetic… The white and brown walls, the dusky orange roof were styled with sharp corners and gave off a kind of noble feel. He guessed that was the point though. These rich people loved to flaunt what they had.

He frowned. That scent of rot and fleshly spilled blood. It didn't come from the mansion… but rather behind it. He growled inwardly and scanned the area for traps or some manner of security. He didn't see anything besides the one guard at the door, oblivious as a blind sheep to a skilled Ninja.

He drew out a kunai and darted across the deeply shadowed street and to the left side of the house. Then he ran along the side of the wall following his nose as the repulsive scent grew stronger. It was disgusting… but he knew that he needed to find the source. Some feeling told him it was important. And not just the fact that there generally weren't torture facilities in residential areas, much less wealthy ones.

He gripped his kunai tighter as his nose told him to turn left into the small wooded area behind the mansion. His apprehension only grew then… Under the scent of decay and fresh blood… he smelled the acrid tang and noxious sweet scent of poison. Something he was well acquainted with after raiding a few of Orochimaru's hideouts with his sensei. He hated that scent…

Naruto hissed in distaste as he broke through the trees on the other side of the woods… and stopped in front of a large shack.

His eyes fell on the door which was cracked open slightly, dim yellow light shining through. He froze as the smell of death overwhelmed him. It was making him nauseous…

He quickly cut the chakra running to his nose and shuddered. What was going on in there? He made up his mind and stalked across the clearing, aware that there were two guards at either side of the doors. They didn't even notice as he crept directly between them and placed his eye to the door. His pupils contracted at the bright light even inside, adjusting quickly…

What he saw made him sick.

Inside there were two blond women hovering around a girl… Her hair was long and dirty, once a glossy black, it had faded with neglect and filth. Her skin had probably once been fair.. but was now yellowed and purple from bruising… where her skin wasn't torn and red, crusty with scabs. His eyes trailed down her nude form. She was chained by her wrists to the ceiling while her ankles had been tied as well, stretching her painfully. Even now Naruto watched as the younger of the two blond women…. Little older than a girl… used a small razor to cut lacerations in her belly.

Blood poured out of the deep slashes. The red seeped, dripping down her body, overwhelming even his unenhanced senses at this point. The iron and rust, salty taste in the back of his mouth was overwhelming.

What they were doing to her… was _wrong._

It would end now!

Without a sound Naruto was inside the room, the doors opening wide. Behind him two shadow clones disposed of the guards… He had no mercy for them. If they had any conscience or good in them they'd risk their jobs to bring this to justice. As it was they shared just as much guilt for letting it continue.

Naruto felt like nothing more than death incarnate as he strode into the room, silent as the death god himself. His blue eyes were cold as they fell on the two women. The elder looked up as he approached her pretty face registering surprise a split second before he nailed her hand to a table with his kunai. At the same moment he slapped a seal over her mouth that he had in a quick-use seal on his wrist. Her scream was instantly silenced as Naruto turned his attention to the younger girl.

Her blond hair was flipped to one side of her face as her head whipped towards him. Naruto's hand caught her by the throat. Her eyes flew open wide and she choked. He calmly… effortlessly, twisted. Then he dropped her, letting her corpse fall to the floor in a heap. His anger would not allow him to let her live a moment longer.

A moment behind him made him spin. He deftly caught the surgical blade that had been aimed for his neck and… staring into the older woman's eyes… snapped her wrist. She let out a silent scream and fell to her knees. Naruto sneered at the pain he was inflicting. She had no right to cry. The tears that suddenly welled in her eyes made him growl. "Pathetic excuse for a woman. Who do you think you are to torture someone like this?"

He gripped the corner of the seal covering her mouth, his voice cutting through the air like a whip. "The guards outside are already dead… and if you scream… I'll do the same thing to you that you've done to her… but trust me, I can make it last longer."

She gasped as he ripped the paper off her mouth. "Who?!"

"None of your business. I am someone who's found out what you've been doing. That and how you're going to help save this girl's life is all you need to worry about." Naruto pointed at the chain holding the girl and sent a tiny wind blade at it. As the razor of air severed the chain he made two clones, which caught her gently. Naruto turned his gaze back to the woman. "Let me be extremely clear. I don't care who you are. For what you were doing to her… you are the trash of humanity and you're lucky I'm undercover... or I would have dragged you straight to have you hanged. I will kill you got it. But unless you do yur best to heal her… I'll make sure you go down slowly…"

His gaze drilled into hers. "Understood?"

"No. Kill me brat."

Naruto scoffed. One hand lashed out and broke her nose, sending blood sheeting. He had no patience for this creature masquerading as a woman. People like her needed to be removed from existence. "Easily arranged. I'm not some brat either. I'm not going to tell you a second time. If you've poisoned her then administer an antidote. And don't think you can sneak anything past me bitch. I can tell when you lie and smell when you are trying something underhanded."

She scowled. "Why should I help you if you will kill me either way. Do I look like an idiot?! Go to hell!"

"It's not whether you die or not… It's how long it takes…" He cracked his knuckles. "Not that it matters. I told you that I wouldn't tell you a second time. I'm not wasting my time waiting for her to bleed out." Naruto pointed his finger at the center of her forehead. "Mini Air Bullet."

-PHFT!-

Red splattered the ground and wall behind her as she toppled to the ground. Naruto spat on her body before he nodded to his clones. "Do what you can until Jiraiya catches up." They nodded back and began to go over her wounds with a critical eye.

Naruto turned away and examined the rest of the room. There were corpses hanging all over the place… like pigs in a butcher shop storeroom. Orochimaru's hidden bases had nothing on this place. Where he had done his work for experimentation… making himself and his servants stronger, these two had been doing it out of enjoyment. They were evil beyond the standard definition. He could tolerate torture. He was a Shinobi. It may have taken a year for Jiraiya to drill that into his head, but he could stand it now. What he couldn't and refused to ever put up with was… _this_.

Those who tortured others in this way for nothing more than their own sick enjoyment. In his short time with the Sanin he hadn't encountered many who were like this. Rapist, murderers, and the scum of the world sure… but this? He didn't see this too often. It was disgusting and made the bile rise in this throat just to look at it all.

His eyes narrowed as he scanned the 'racks'. If he didn't have more self control when it came to this kind of thing, he'd have already put this place to the torch with one of his bigger Fire jutsu. Either that or turned the whole place into a pile of splinters with wind… Not that it would help anything. It was just a way to vent his frustration. Shit like this wasn't supposed to happen. The 'law' was tasked with upholding order and peace. And this butcher house was most certainly against order. This was just carefully hidden carnage…

"Holy shit gaki… this is the worst I've seen since my time helping the Kiri rebellion."

Naruto turned at Jiraiya's voice. The older man was looking around with a grim expression. "Hey Sensei, this girl here is alive, but she needs toad oil to treat her external injuries as fast as we can. Otherwise she'll bleed to death before we figure out what's wrong on the inside."

"Got it."

Naruto walked away from Jiraiya who was already summoning one of the toads to fetch the healing oil. He stepped between the racks and cages, looking for signs of life among the dead. It wasn't long before he found some. Across the room, in a cage, was a young man. Naruto guessed he was about his own age, but frail and starved.

"Hey… are you awake?" Naruto grasped the boy's hand through the bars of the cage. "Wake up."

The boy seemed to stir slowly, his eyes drifting open. "W..what.. NO! Don't touch me again!" He leapt back from the front of the cage, only to see Naruto instead of his jailers. "Wait.. w..who are you?!"

"My name is Naruto. I killed the two women who were here torturing people. Give me a second and I'll have you out of there." Naruto nodded to him as the boy's shocked eyes locked onto his. The blond closed his eyes briefly and then funneled trace amounts of Wind chakra into his fingertips, sharpening the blades until they would cut through almost anything. Then he swiped at the cage bars, high and low. They fell apart with an iron clang. "Come on. I'm looking for survivors. We already have the girl down from over there. Do you know if there are any others that are still alive here?"

"No…" He muttered half heartedly. "Were the last two.."

"Can you answer a few questions then?"

He looked up. The dark circles under his eyes were so pronounced that to Naruto they looked like black coins. "Yeah… you… You saved me. I'll tell you anything you want…"

Naruto cut to the chase. "Who else is involved with this? What is their scam and who needs to _die_?"

"The.. guards are all involved… That girl lures people and travelers in. offers them a place to stay for the night, then drugs them and brings them here. Me… me and Sayo were separated from our friend Tatsumi… He had all the money and we had all the food and supplies. When we came here we couldn't by a room for the night and ended up meeting that… that bitch. She took us here and let us stay for dinner. They drugged our food…"

"Was she poisoned? I can smell it on the air, but I don't know what it is…"

"No… not yet." He coughed loudly and covered his mouth. Blood soon dripped between his fingers. "They were saying that they would do it tonight… and then make me watch…"

Naruto nodded. "I'm glad I made it in time, but who else do I need to kill to make sure this doesn't continue?" He growled out the last part, making it clear those left responsible were going to suffer.

"The… the woman's husband… The guards… I don't know who else. A.. a man came yesterday, but he didn't do anything… except talk with that woman.. He left and I never caught his name or face…"

"Good. Now how are you hurt?"

A wet chuckled made the boy's chest heave. "Every possible way I can think of. Just.. just help Sayo first okay.. I can handle the pain…"

Naruto smirked. "No need. Let me help you over to my sensei. He'll get both of you healed as best we can for now. Then it'll be time for me to go take out the trash. By the way… what's your name?"

"Leyasu… My friend over there.. is Sayo."

"Got it." Naruto put his shoulder under Leyasu's arm so he could support the other and walked across the room to where Jiraiya was already tending to the girl. He then let the boy lay down on the cool stone floor as Jiraiya smoothed the special toad oil over Sayo's wounds. Already they were healing… which was odd because usually only he healed that fast with the oil. "Sensei? How is she doing?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "You can't tell? The oil is working faster than usual… Not sure why but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Fine… but as soon as they can be moved… we need to get out of here."

"Right… I'll leave torching the place to you."

Naruto growled his thanks and bent to tend Leyasu's injures with his sensei. "I'm only sixteen for fucks sake. I'm not supposed to be saying that I'm too old for this shit."

Jiraiya shook his head. "Naruto… no matter how old you are… you're always too old for this… Now… stop being so pissed and help me."

"Right…"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto was awake in bed long after Jiraiya and Armen… along with their two guests… had been asleep. The events of the night were nagging at him, along with a few other things that refused to put his mind at ease. For one he was furious about what he'd heard from Armen that such… things… were ignored by most of the higher ups in the Capital. How could they ignore that shit!? It was happening right under their noses and they couldn't rightly allow it to continue.

But then again it gave credence to Armen's original story about the Capital being corrupt to its core.

He really wanted to go to the guards after that and report everything, but common sense and a healthy sucker punch from Jiraiya settled that down quick enough. But it still left him feeling hollow. All those people who would never get to achieve their dreams, lured away by that… evil family… He had half a mind to send out a couple cozen clones to do that damned guards jobs for them. Maybe he could give a whole new meaning to the term vigilante. After a few dozen of those corrupt officials and their hateful benefactors were hanging from their necks in the street… maybe the Capital's government would sit up and rule their fucking country...!

And yet… again… that was what Armen wanted them here for. In his mind the Capital's government was already too far gone. He wanted them to save his home… by any means necessary. And Naruto was just beginning to see just how big a task that would be.

Originally he'd thought they were going to a village like one of the five big ones back home. They'd take out a few bad guys and maybe call in reinforcements if some bigger threat showed up… but now that was a ludicrous thought. The Capital was so massive that he could spam clones all day and all night and not see it all. He doubted even the most experienced street urchin or the oldest guardsman could even memorize a fourth of the massive city. It wasn't like Konoha… Konoha was a city that was called a village…

The Capital was a _landscape…_ that was called a city. It wasn't so much a city as a terrain. A geography… How were they supposed to deal with the root of corruption here? He'd need to go full Biju mode just to make any progress!

The task, which had a week ago been exciting, now seemed daunting. And that wasn't even the only thing on his mind… No he had so many other things to worry about.

Of course there was the old one. The Akatsuki was still after him… and if they chased after him then he'd have to fight them with guaranteed no backup. And also there was his training with the Kyuubi's chakra. He still hadn't mastered the demon's power and it was starting to wear on him. How long would it take for him to be able to use the Kyuubi's power as Jiraiya said his mother could?

And then there was Esdeath… the woman of his dreams, literally. He still couldn't stop thinking about her. Even now, consumed by other things, she lingered in the back of his mind.

The very fact that his thoughts had turned to her… conjured her image… Granted he'd only seen her twice.. but as he'd realized before, he simply couldn't forget a single detail. It was as if his brain refused to surrender the clarity of her mental picture to time. The curve of her lips evoked a feeling in him that was so… hard to ignore. He wanted to hold… caress.. kiss.. nibble, bite… _everything…_ He wanted to run his fingers through her bright sapphire hair, mark her pale shoulders… Every night he dreamed of that and so much more. If he didn't meet her again, either in that special dream or in real life, he was sure he'd go crazy.

Naruto growled into the softness of his bed. He just wanted _her._ Was that too much to ask? But it didn't seem to matter! It seemed that every time he went to sleep he was just tortured by visions of what he _could_ be doing. And then both times he'd actually been with her in what he was starting to think was a connected mindscape, he'd been woken up! It was so infuriating that he almost wanted to kill Jiraiya that second time. His chest ached when he thought of what she'd been about to say to him… ARRGGG!

He hissed and forced himself to relax. There was no point in agonizing over it. He'd just have to wait… as much as it annoyed the ever loving crap out of him to do so. His eyes closed and he willed himself to fall asleep.

 _ **ooo**_

 _ **ooo**_

"Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes snapped open at the voice and he was sitting up an instant later. He looked around. Yes.. he was here. THIS place was where he'd met her twice before! He didn't see her immediately so she must be…

Suddenly he was tackled to the side by someone… oh he knew who it was… His head turned and his eyes alit on her perfect skin and blue eyes. She was smiling, grinning, her face blooming red even now. "Naruto!"

"Esdeath.." He was cut off as her lips slammed against his without warning. And that was all it took. Hands were set loose to wander as he pushed back, tasting her lips. They were like flower petals… so soft. Naruto felt his self control disappear then. Before another second passed her cool hands were crawling up under his jacket and shirt. Her tongue asked permission and he gave it. Naruto groaned as he was levered back. She straddled him as his hands found her toned belly, scratching along it with long strokes. Her muscles quivered under his touch, sending his restraint out the window.

He broke the kiss… much to Esdeath's obvious displeasure… only to kiss her neck, nibbling down to her collarbone. Esdeath's moan spurred him further as he bit her throat softly, marking her with his sharp canines. Every time he did so, her fingers would scratch across his chest and her legs would tighten on either side of his hips. Naruto groaned as his growing erection strained. Esdeath evidently noticed because she started to grind down slowly…

Her face lowered to his as he left off her neck. She was very red, her cheeks and neck painted crimson. At the same time her hands had retreated, now simply resting on his lower abdomen. She panted quietly, attempting to get her breathing under control. Naruto reluctantly did the same, but found himself unable to dull his _excitement_ as she never stopped grinding.

They stayed like that for a moment longer before he managed to speak, somewhat out of breath. "So… how were you..?"

She took a deep breath and pushed forward to kiss him with as much passion as she could muster. He accepted it, his member throbbing hard with the beat of his heart. Meanwhile he dropped his hands from her belly… to the floor and levered himself up. Esdeath stayed like that for a second and then pulled back, her lips reddening from the force of the kiss.

"How do you think I've been doing?! I can't stop thinking about you and I can't concentrate on anything…" She bit her lip and leaned forward again, kissing him lightly. Naruto returned it, savoring the contact. His heart beat faster as Esdeath's tongue darted out to lick his lips. "…how about you?"

He chuckled. "Same here… You can't imagine how happy I am that we met again tonight."

"Oh… I think I can…" Naruto groaned as Esdeath gave another enthusiastic grind into his crotch. "But we have a lot to talk about… We don't know when we will be interrupted this time…"

"Sorry…" He sighed. "It's been my end both times. The guys I'm traveling with have been warned though."

" _Good…"_ Esdeath practically purred. "Now… where are you..?"

"The Capital… A small inn on the west side near the residential district. It's called the Winking Wyvern or something." Naruto saw her eyes light up with excitement at his words. "Are you in the Capital too?"

"Yes!" She cried, leaning in for another deep kiss. It kept them occupied for nearly three minutes before Naruto broke it off. He made a mental note to beat the living shit out of Jiraiya for delaying this more than a week. The old man really had it coming…

"So.. where are you?"

"The Imperial Palace. But… I can be out in the city tomorrow early." Esdeath's smile was at once aroused and predatory. "Where can we meet?"

Naruto shook his head. "Don't know… I've never been to the Capital before. You know better than I, but I could ask for directions… I just don't want my traveling companions to see you yet."

She frowned. "Why not?"

He sighed as she stilled and leaned closer, her nose less than an inch from his. "Listen Esdeath-chan… I'm not from this country at all. I can honestly say that I don't know what I wouldn't do for you at this point… but it's all so sudden. We understand this _attraction_ but they might not. Besides, I'm part of a military that's probably going to be opposed to yours in the near future."

"I see… Not a problem though…"

Naruto inhaled her scent as she spoke. Then asked, "Why not? You don't even know what country I'm from yet."

"Because I have no connections in the Capital that are worth keeping. There are things I enjoy but none of them do I absolutely require the Capital for." Esdeath's eyes focused on him more strongly. "I find myself unable to think of doing anything other than…" Her blush deepened even further. "…being with you…"

"I…"

"It doesn't matter." She placed one finger to his lips. "I am sick and tired of things getting in the way of me meeting you in person. And the gods have mercy on the soul of any living being who gets in my way now… So… Naruto please meet me Abrill's Blacksmith tomorrow. It's on the north side of the Capital and any guardsman worth his commission can point you in the right direction."

He nodded. "Will we speak there or go somewhere else?" Naruto captured her lips briefly before whispering in her ear, "I would like some _real_ private time with you…"

Esdeath moaned in his ear, "Is that a _promise…?"_

"It is." He grinned. "And you should know, I never break my promise without an incredibly good reason… if that."

"I'll keep that in mind…" She shifted in his lap again and pouted. "So… now that our meeting is secure… tell me a bit about you. Since you already know what I am… I'd like to know what my future husband does for a living…"

"Um… I kill people?"

Esdeath started grinding again. "Mmm….more specific.." Another groan escaped him as she wrapped her arms around his neck, using the leverage to increase the pressure.

"Fuck… I'm a member of Konohagakure's military… the country across the sea to the west… I'm pretty low ranking right now, only a Genin, but I haven't had a chance to get promoted yet. I'm still technically on a training trip with my Godfather. We call ourselves Shinobi…"

"Shinobi?"

Naruto nodded. "You would call us an entire country ruled and governed by assassins, defended by assassins, who war with other assassin villages. Except when I say village I mean more cities… Kinda like the Capitals way to damned big to consider a city at all."

"How interesting…" Esdeath's lips found their way to his again, meeting his softly. Again he didn't even try to pull back, actually pressing forward to deepen the contact. But after a moments she withdrew, her eyes resting on his. "Assassins formed a government? That must be interesting."

"It's kinda normal actually. Only a few of us really fit the definition of true assassins anymore. I'm what's called a Ninjutsu specialist."

"And that is?"

"Someone who focuses on powerful elemental attacks meant to devastate large areas." He grinned. "I'd like to think I'm probably the most suited to Ninjutsu in my whole village. I was born with a massive amount of energy to draw from."

Esdeath smirked. "I can feel that… You radiate power. It's addicting in more than one way." She kissed him again, trailing down to bite at his neck. Her voice warmed his skin as she asked, "So why are you here in the Empire anyway?"

Naruto groaned, pushing Esdeath away and down. She looked up, suddenly finding him on top. Her lips formed a sultry pout. "Aw… I like being in charge."

"Heh… me too." He growled low in his throat as he cupped her thigh with his hand, running up to her firm rear and squeezing. Then he smoothed over to the center of her belly, scratching as he went. "I can't believe how good it feels to touch you like this… and you let me do it.."

"Why not…? I fully intend on making you mine… but that works both ways does it not?" Her finger drew down from his back to rest over his solar plexus. "And I get the feeling you aren't the submissive type. Am I right?"

He chuckled, stroking up towards the undersides of her breasts. "Good intuition… Esdeath-chan…"

"Chan?"

"A term from my country. Used for boys referring to girls usually. You're my girl aren't you?"

Esdeath's face bloomed a deeper shade of red at his words, even as she wrapped her legs around him. "Do I have to repeat myself? You are mine and vice versa."

Naruto's face descended till it was barely an inch from hers. " _Good_ … I don't think I could stay away from you now." He dipped his head, kissing her milky white shoulder and then biting her. His sharp canines left her unblemished skin marked red. "I still don't know why this even feels like it does… but I can't seem to care. I just want to do it in the real world. This stupid dream is so god damned tempting…"

She nodded slowly, but her eyes had gone unfocused. Esdeath shifted under him, responding to his actions. "Don't.. you dare stop…"

"Why would I?" Naruto kissed her again, taking her lips between his teeth and sucking on it. Esdeath almost purred as he released it and kissed her again, hard.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Jiraiya frowned slightly as he observed his student. Naruto was lying in one of the beds they'd rented for the night in a local Inn. This wasn't disturbing or strange in and of its self. It wasn't as if they didn't sleep in a good Inn every chance they got. After all being a Shinobi was hard enough without having to sleep in the woods…

What made the act of sleeping strange in this case… was how active Naruto was. The Toad Sage scratched his chin in thought as he watched Naruto toss and turn. He hadn't stopped rolling over and adjusting himself for at least a half an hour. That was… _odd._ Jiraiya had always known Naruto to be a heavy sleeper. Nothing short of a brick to the side of the head would wake him up sometimes. And he rarely stirred. So… this restlessness was very unusual.

But that was really only foreshadowing.

What really alarmed him was what Naruto was muttering in his sleep. Or more to the point… the name he was muttering.

" _Esdeath…"_

Jiraiya's brow furrowed even more. What was going on? Naruto had been acting strange for a while now. Ever since the boat ride across the sea. It started out as him being a little less observant. And then it degenerated into outright listlessness. He wasn't even paying attention to where he was walking half the time, eyes focused inward.

Plus his temper had been going downhill _fast_ over the last ten days. Now… Jiraiya knew that Naruto, unlike how most understood him, had a very short temper. He just masked his anger exceedingly well. So when Naruto threatened him with ripping his balls of and feeding them to him… it came as a bit of a shock. Sure Naruto threatened him… Sometimes several times a day. But he'd never made a threat like that and at the same time been completely serious.

Naruto abruptly rolled… off the bed.

-THUMP-

Jiraiya's eyes widened and he quickly shun-shined out of the room and back to his bed. He would ask Naruto about his odd behavior tomorrow… when there wasn't a chance that his student would try to kill him.

...

Blinking awake, Naruto found himself peering under his bed from the floor. His mind was blank for a few moments, attempting to process this latest interruption.

Why?

Why couldn't he just be left alone to sleep for an hour? Why was it that when he had an actual dream about Esdeath… he would have the full eight hours, but when he was speaking to the real one… it never lasted more than a few minutes? Granted this third time seemed to be the charm and he'd been able to spend…

But he had no idea how long it had been since he fell asleep. Time was quite forgotten when he was there with her. The last thing he remembered was Esdeath moaning into his mouth as he kissed her.

Fuck…

Naruto sat up, growling as he scanned the room. There was no sign of anyone else. The door was closed. Well, so much for carrying out his threat to his sensei… Naruto rubbed at his neck where he could still feel the phantom touch of lips. Damn… Now he couldn't even beat the shit out of anyone for waking him up. After all he'd woken himself.

He stood. Instantly his sharp eyes noted the depression in the leather seat of the chair… which was slowing rising back into place.

Almost as though someone had been sitting there a moment ago.

Naruto blinked and… a feral grin spread across his lips. Someone _had_ been sitting in his room. Someone who was going to be in a lot of pain when they woke up. Of course… he couldn't know who it had been. Armen or Jiraiya. Armen made more sense though. After all Jiraiya knew he was serious about his earlier threat. So it _probably_ wasn't him.

But he couldn't be sure so he'd just have to punish both of them. Not as severely as he initially planned for this situation, but still enough to instill a real sense of fear.

"Oh… fuck it. I don't give a damn." Naruto laid back down and closed his eyes. He would get back at them another time… At the moment he was more interested in thinking about his meeting with Esdeath the next day. Jiraiya and Armen's reckonings could wait.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

 **The following morning.**

Jiraiya let loose a mighty yawn and stretched his arms out to each side of the bed.

Well, to be more precise, he tried to stretch his arms out. What happened instead was he opened his eyes, tilting his head up to find himself… bound hand and foot… a meter in the air. Ropes, secured by kunai in the room's walls kept him suspended in the air.

Jiraiya was momentarily alarmed until his eyes adjusted to the light coming through the window. He then saw the note that was suspended about two feet in front of his face on ninja wire. He squinted to make out the writing.

- _Jiraiya, if you are reading this it means the sleeping potion I made has finally worn off. You are currently suspended one meter off the bed, bound with that chakra adsorbing rope you love so much. The bed under you is strapped with kunai and razor wire. If you move too much the kunai will pull free of the walls and you will fall on the kunai. At the same time, if you channel chakra the explosive tags that are stuck in your underwear with go off. Feel free to help Armen when you get free. He is in a similar position, but seeing who he is… you may not have much time to get free._

 _Good luck._

 _P.S. I will be going out into the capital to scout today. I'll send a messenger toad if I learn anything. Also… any expenses incurred by the explosives will be on your tab._

 _Naruto Uzumaki.-_

Jiraiya groaned and let his head drop slowly back. A few second passed. Then he heard the shouting from the room over. Sweat broke out on his brow. "Oh shit…."

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto sighed, a ten-thousand kilowatt smile upon his face. He strolled down the streets of the capital with his hands in his pockets and Esdeath on the brain. He simply couldn't imagine being happier at that moment… Or at least not until he met Esdeath in person.

Right now it was about ten in the morning. The sun shone high in the sky, casting its bright rays upon the capital. Naruto thought it looked like one of those amazing paintings that people did completely from memory. The city was a landscape… rolling hills of buildings and parks abounded. It was beautiful…

…And it also smelled, which annoyed him more than he was willing to admit. His sense of smell, which was much keener than the average human… or even the average Shinobi, was registering the taint of the street side gutters and the unpleasant scent of civilians emptying their trash. It didn't help that he could hear the disconsolate mutterings of civilians walking past him.

It didn't seem as though most people were nearly as happy as he was.

Naruto imagined that this was a sad thing. Wouldn't it be great if everyone could feel how he did right now? Going to meet someone like Esdeath… He let out another sigh and commanded his eyes to search out a guardsman as soon as he could. Currently he was heading north, although he had no idea if this was the right direction to find the black smith's shop that Esdeath directed him to. But… she did say that any good Guardsman could point the way. So first things first. He needed to find one.

And about ten minutes later he saw one.

It was an older man dressed in fashionable, yet oddly flimsy looking, armor. Naruto spotted him even as he jogged out of an alley and into the street. He could also hear the sounds of a commotion coming closer.

Thinking to get the information he needed before whatever conflict approaching them arrived, Naruto darted over to the man. "Hey! I was wondering if you could tell me where to find th….?"

Whatever he had been about to say died in his throat as he heard the frantic scream of a small girl. His head snapped to the side just in time to see six more guards dragging two girls out of the ally, their arms bound tightly behind them. Naruto instantly recognized one of them from the posters _liberally_ scattered on almost every message board he's seen since he left the inn. The other looked to be no older than thirteen with cherry red hair and a badly bleeding gash on her forehead.

Naruto's eyes took in the scene with startling clarity as he realized what was happening. The older of the two girls was beautiful with long purple hair and somber eyes. Although her looks were marred by the shattered pair of glasses that had been jammed into her face, leaving the bloody imprint of the metal rims.

She was a member of Nightraid. She was one of the people listed on the wanted posters. And… although he hadn't caught her name, he guessed she was one of the people Armen had mentioned to them. About now he was wishing he'd paid more attention to what they talked about, instead of daydreaming about Esdeath and ignoring useful need-to-know information.

Obviously she had been caught and was being dragged to whatever counted for a prison here. Obviously this was not good for him. The very fact that there was a 95% chance that he and Jiraiya would be fighting the Empire at this point meant they needed Nightraid's cooperation. And Armen already told them that he could contact the Rebellion… and through them Nightraid.

Which meant… that he couldn't afford to let her be captured.

If she was captured she would likely die… But if he saved her then it might allow him and Jiraiya to contact Nightraid without having to go through his other contacts. That would be a big help if they could cut to the chase and meet with the front line fighters first.

Naruto growled low in his throat. He didn't want to take even this much time away from meeting Esdeath… but the benefits to the operation far outweighed the few minutes he would need to save her. After all… this might be a favor he could call in later if they needed it.

As a Shinobi he knew how valuable a debt like that could be.

So he simply couldn't afford to let her be captured. Esdeath would have to wait just a little bit longer…

 **Ooo**

Sheele grunted in pain as the guards hauled her along the street. She didn't know what had gone wrong. One moment she'd been taking out the target with her bare hands. (she couldn't take her scissors since they were too well recognized) And then the next moment the man she was killing decided to use some unknown martial arts on her.

At first she was put off guard when she suddenly couldn't land even a single hit on the guy. And then she felt a fist like a steel ingot crash into her throat. Her ability to breath was instantly cut off and she fell back with a gasp. He was on her a split second after that and before she even realized it… she was captured.

It was a good thing she brought backup this time. Leone had come along… and thank god, Akame as well. With those two trailing them, there was no way she would get killed. At least as long as Leone and Akame managed to get an opportunity to rescue her. But for now she had to play the part of the defeated criminal.

She hated acting like that.

Sheele raised her head as the guards pulled her into the light of the main street heading towards the palace. She groaned in pain, which with how tight her bindings were, she didn't need to fake in the least. Her eyes showed her the six guards around her and the one in front, clearing the way… and… a blur?

A sound like a blade cleaving though water rushed in her ears and everything went black. She heard a scream, shouts, and several thuds. Her panicked mind told her this was just Akame and Leone making their move… but that wasn't what it was at all. A hand suddenly grabbed her and then an arm wrapped around her waist as she was lifted into the air…

Sheele didn't shout, keeping silent, as whoever it was hauled her away at a blistering pace. She, along with her rescuer exited a cloud of thick smoke and blasted down the street and out of the guard's sight. The city around her literally seemed to blur, details becoming indistinguishable. Before she could blink they were five blocks away from the alley she was just dragged out of.

The world turned ninety degrees and she barely restrained the urge to scream as the one carrying her took to the air. A scream rent the air at the apex of their leap and Sheele realized that the other girl who had been with her… was slung over the other shoulder. The red headed teen was far from silent.

A second later she felt the wind rushing past her face and her rescuer landed on the roof of the building. Sheele found herself unceremoniously dropped. But in a surprising twist, her bonds had already been severed.

When did that happen?

She drew in a deep breath and attempted to get her bearings.

She was sitting on a roof top quite a distance from where she was captured. Beside her was the girl who tried to save her for some reason. And standing only a few feet from her was… the most handsome young man she'd ever seen. Sheele unconsciously adjusted her damaged glasses and tried to get a better look at him.

He was tall with blond hair and deep tanned skin. His face bore three jagged black marks on either side… and as he took a breath she saw long sharpened canines. The most startling feature was his eyes. Blue as the sea after a storm… with slitted black pupils that reminded her of Leone in her battle form. He was _very_ attractive and had she not been in this particular situation, she might have blushed.

But as it was she only stared stupidly as he scanned the rooftops around them. It required a moment before she was able to articulate a response to his impromptu rescue.

"Wh.. who are you?"

He seemed satisfied with the state of their pursuit… if there was any… and he turned to look at her. A feral grin pulled at his lips, again reminding her of Leone. "Ah… my name isn't something I just hand out assassin-chan." His grin widened. "You're pretty lucky I have a really strong conscience. Otherwise I wouldn't have broken my cover to get you out of there… Nightraid."

Sheele tensed. "You know who I am?"

"Well duh… You're picture is pretty much everywhere. And I'm usually observant enough to notice seemingly inconsequential details hours after seeing them. A few hundred wanted posters over an hour or so is certainly enough to jog my memory. Besides… I've heard a lot about your group recently."

"And where have you heard about us from may I ask." She grunted as she stood to look him in the eye. "No offense sir. I'm thankful you saved me, however Nightraid doesn't need any more enemies than it already has."

"Oh come on…" He raised one eyebrow. "If I had any intention in fighting Nightraid I would have let them drag you away. I only rescued you because I needed to contact your people sooner or later. You might say you got captured at a really convenient time for me."

"Again… I ask where…"

He sighed. "You're really insistent for someone who just got their ass saved. Sheesh… and here I thought people had manners these days." He rolled his eyes at her. "Listen, just like you wouldn't tell me where your secret base is just because I asked… I can't just tell you where I learned about your organization. Suffice to say me and _my_ allies were brought in by someone who opposes Prime Minister Honest. I saved you because we're _probably_ on the same side."

"Probably?" She frowned. "Why probably?"

"Because my allies aren't fighting to save your country. My allies are worried about our own country. Let me put it this way. I come from a country that Honest will eventually try to invade once he's done taking over this continent. I'm part of a group that will ensure that he won't bring war to our home. Like I said, we aren't here to save you. We're here to help ourselves and if that just so happens to kill Honest and bring peace back… that's good all around…"

He shrugged as if there wasn't any more else to say.

Sheele's frown deepened. "So you're from out of the country and you're here to make sure Honest doesn't take over your homeland as soon as he's finished conquering everything around the empire?"

"Basically."

"And… you would consider working with Nightraid?"

"Yeah… I mean from what I've heard about you, your group isn't the most powerful. I could probably kill most of your members without too much trouble, but your group has all the info we need on Honest and the Empire. Strengths, weaknesses and the like." He looked away from her, his muscles tensing with nervous tension. "Anyway. I saved you, told you why we're here, and offered to work with you at some point. That's good enough for me right now. We'll find a way to get in contact with you some other time. Right now I'm meeting with someone… She's probably waiting for me already…"

Sheele tilted her head as he cursed under his breath and paced to the edge of the roof.

"Who are you meeting?"

He didn't answer.

"Could you at least give me something to call you?!"

He turned back. "Well… let me think… How about this. You can call me Kitsune."

"Fox?"

"What? You got a problem with that?"

"No."

 _Kitsune_ sighed. "I'm taking off. Good luck." Sheele blinked and was about to call out when he suddenly paused. "Hey… do you know where Abrill's blacksmith is?"

"Sure, it's in the north sector of the city. You can find it if you follow Emperor's way all the way to Enderon's square. The smithy is on the left when you get there." She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you going there? That's the place that outfits all the guards in the north sector. Didn't you just kill a bunch of guards?"

"Kill no. I just knocked them unconscious. As for why I'm going there…" He smirked. "I have a date with the most beautiful woman on the continent. And I'd hate to be late… She'd probably turn me into an ice statue." He grinned, waved, and without a sound, vanished from sight.

A second later Akame and Leone touched down on the roof. The big blond rushed over. "Hey Sheele! Who was that, what was he doing, and tell me damn it if he's single!"

Sheele craned her head up at Leone as she answered. "Well… he told me to call him Fox, he's part of some force working against Honest from what I can tell… and… As for that last part he's apparently going on a date right now."

Leone swore in a way to make a sailor blush.

Akame walked over and knelt by the redhead, who seemed to be in shock still. She glanced back at Leone. "You should track him down and gather intel. I will help Sheele get out of the city."

"You got it! Time to crash this date…!"

"Leone… just watch."

"Aw… you're no fun."

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

Naruto followed the direction he was given to the letter, although admittedly he was questioning whether or not it was a good idea to mention where he was looking to go. What if that girl sent someone to spy on him? That wouldn't be good, at least not until he sorted everything out with Esdeath. Once he did that he could take her back to meet Jiraiya and Armen. That at least would allow them to pull together some sort of plan to deal with the Empire… He just hoped that whatever plan was made, he and Esdeath would be able to remain close.

Just being separated from her was torture at this point! He still didn't understand it… Maybe he wasn't supposed to. But the idea of Esdeath being… away from him for any extended period of time seemed unacceptable in his mind. It was abhorrent, uncool, and completely out of the question. She was _his_ and he wouldn't allow anyone to tell him they couldn't be together. He didn't give a damn if she happened to be a General of the Empire or not!

" _So… let's see, where am I? She said to go to the square and it would be on the… right… I think."_

Naruto hummed to himself as he glanced around what he correctly assumed was Enderon's square. It was a bit crowded here for his liking. He always imagined that he would meet Esdeath in a secluded area… maybe in a forest? But now? Abrill's Blacksmith was a busy destination and obviously well guarded.

Was his dear Esdeath thinking at all when she told him to come here? Or was she so overcome with the idea of meeting him that she threw out the first place that popped into her head?

He stopped humming as he scanned the crowd. It didn't seem to him like anything abnormal or suspicious as going on… So why did he have a sudden tickle of apprehension tracing its way up his spine? And why were the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end?

Naruto realized the reason a split second later.

He was being watched. And not just the casual observation everyone in the city was subjected to. This was a highly focused watching… although whoever it was obviously needed someone to show them how to conceal their presence and intent. This spy… or whoever it was… he or she was just so damn blatant!

Worse still the pricking feeling was distracting him from his current objective.

Naruto grimaced and continued through the crowd, throwing caution to the wind. He would be damned if he went on another detour. He was meeting Esdeath right the fuck now. His eyes flicked from side to side as he moved like water through the crowded square, eventually finding shelter in an alley on the other side.

Abrill's blacksmith was just two buildings from him and through an open window… his eyes caught a flash of blue.

Pursuit was forgotten as he moved like death's shadow past the two guards in front of the blacksmith… They didn't even see him. He was invisible to them despite it being broad daylight. Such was the focus he had on her. Naruto cut through the intervening space like blade through flesh.

And then he was there.

…

Esdeath let out a startled gasp as his arms twined around her from behind, his lips brushing the graceful curve of her neck. She tensed and looked back as if preparing to dissect him with her sword… only to freeze faster than the ice she had control over. Her eyes… so blue… met his with their slitted pupils. Naruto would remember the next moment for the rest of his life.

She turned her delicate hands infiltrating his jacket, seeking out his skin and linking together behind his back. Then Esdeath leaned in… and kissed him.

Naruto let his eyes close as their lips met feeling nothing in that moment but her… _his woman_ … against him. His hands traced upwards his fingers drawing a line up the small of her back. He found her general's hat and removed it, placing his hand behind her head… and pulling her deeper into the kiss. She didn't protest in the slightest, all but moaning into his mouth. The temperature dropped like as stone as Naruto asked permission and Esdeath granted it, opening her mouth to him. She tasted… _sweet_.

Naruto burned with an unnatural heat as her silken skin flowed against his. He couldn't hear the Kyuubi's shouts as he almost absent mindedly used the beast's chakra to keep himself warm. All he could hear was Esdeath… and all he could see was darkness. He felt… _whole._ As though a piece that had been missing just fell into place.

Surprise bit sharply as Esdeath withdrew. His eyes fluttered open even as he instinctively held her tighter. He didn't want to be separated from her even the slightest fraction. Now that she was in his arms it would take all of the Elemental Nations combined to part them. He inclined his head, looking into her baby blues. "Esdeath-chan?"

Her face was flushed and her cheeks were bright with a ruby tint. She leaned in again whispering past his ear. "Let's go someplace private… do my personal chambers sound… _suitable?"_

He shook his head. "Too far… You live in the palace…"

Esdeath's already red complexion darkened. "There's a nice inn nearby… if you'd like…"

Naruto found her lips again. Esdeath all but swooned into him, the temperature dropping so low that the others in the room fled the scene. He didn't even notice their departure. All he cared about was right in front of him. He broke the kiss reluctantly and rested his head on hers.

"I would like that…"

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

 **And that chapter is done! Yes! Finally posted!**

 **Remember my dear fans to review, for oft as it has been spoken by many an author of assembled fanfictions… reviews are the life blood of productive writing and many a chapter was posted to a story often reviewed…**

 **So… now I leave you with this chapter and the promise of a new one soon. Chapter four is nearly finished. All I need to do is pass it along to my BETA and then post it here!**


	4. 4 - A Brief Intermission

**Hello again everyone and happy belated 4** **th** **of July. I'm not all that patriotic, but I know there are plenty out there who are, so this is to you patriotic people! (At least those who are American since it was an American holiday)**

 **That being said I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Granted there will not be all that much action. But… there will be a nice long lemon for you guys (or girls) to enjoy. I'd like to think it's good enough to be entertaining (I know that's not the right word for it though). So… onto the reader responses!**

 **RiDDicK0011** **: Yes yes… much ass kicking will be expected in both the empire and the Elemental nations. Never fear!**

 **Sinnerlust** **: Excellent point! I'm glad someone brought that up! The Empire and the Elemental Nations aren't exclusive of each other. Just as Naruto and Jiraiya can go to the capital, the Empire could send people to Konoha! (provided they could get there unscathed)**

 **Random reader** **: Well… how may chapters will I write? To be perfectly honest I don't know, but judging from the plot line I have figured out, the events I plan to include, and factoring in possible changes I make or ideas that reviewers give me…. I would say somewhere between 35 and 50 chapters. It will take a while, but eventually I'll get there.**

 **NatsuxWendy** **: It is less that Naruto knew he was being spied on and didn't care as that as soon as he saw Esdeath, thoughts of pursuit left his mind completely. Keep in mind he's been obsessing over her every day for more than a week at this point. And he's a ninja, not to mention a Jinchuriki. He's used to being followed. It would be a different story if he were attacked.**

 **9** **: As you ask, so shall you receive.**

 **Guest** **: Yes, you can pretty much bet that there will be less character death. Sheele will not be dying in this one. She was one of my favorite characters!**

 **Now the disclaimer (I don't own any part of Naruto or Akame ga Kill)**

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

 _ **Chapter 4 – A Brief Intermission**_

In a small room deep within the bowels of the imperial palace, three men were standing in front of a door. It was small and unobtrusive, but made out of an unlikely substance… a material that would immediately place suspicion upon its purpose.

Mythral

One of the three legendary metals along with Adamantium and Etherium. This door was smooth silver, lacking anything in the form of decoration or adornment. In fact it didn't even have a handle. The only thing that graced the front of this door was a small triangular hole in its center, just large enough to insert a finger.

Other than that, there was nothing besides what it was made out of to suggest this door to be anything out of the ordinary… Well, that and the fact that it hadn't been opened in almost a thousand years. Deep within the palace it rested, undisturbed for centuries.

And now… it was ready to be opened.

"Excuse me Prime Minister… but are you absolutely sure this will work? Taking blood from the young Emperor… I don't think it was wise."

The one who spoke was a short man with spiky brown hair and a smallish goatee. His light brown eyes looked up to examine his superior with an uneasy gleam. As much as he was excited to see this door opened for the first time since the reign of the first Emperor, he was still loyal to the Emperor and taking a blood sample from his without the boy's knowledge was not something he liked.

"Oh?" Honest retorted surprised. "And here I thought you were eager to help him. Meh… sometimes we must do things for those we care for without their knowledge. What the young master doesn't know can't hurt him in this case."

"I… suppose that may be true.."

Honest chuckled. "Don't worry about it Sedric! Once this door is opened and I can confirm what lies on the other side, then we can tell his highness." He turned to the last of their small group, a tall lanky youth of about eighteen. "Go ahead boy. Open the door would you?"

"O..of course Prime M..minister…" He stuttered horribly, but complied, stepping towards the door and placing his hand his pocket as he did so. A second later he pulled out an odd looking object. It looked like a key, but instead of teeth it was round with no protrusions at all. "H..here goes nothing…"

He placed the tip at the hole and accepted the small vial of blood that honest provided. This he opened and poured over the strange key.

Then he thrust the key into the hole and twisted sharply.

For a full moment nothing happened. And then there was a loud hiss. Intricate lines of blue fire ran up the length of the door. They continued through it for nearly a minute before disappearing completely. Then the door abruptly turned transparent and… vanished as if it had never been. In its place was a small slivery bracelet with a blue sapphire lock inset in the band.

Honest stepped forward, nodding to himself.

So it was true. He'd been looking through the records the Empire kept on all the Imperial Arms and two had leapt out at him. The first was a bracelet that could transform into a shield to fit any circumstance. It could become a small shield for a soldier, a massive dome to protect and entire area… or an impenetrable door.

One diagram of this bracelet had matched this door perfectly.

And the second was a tiny gold key that was supposed to be able to unlock any lock in the world… or open things that had no key hole at all. The first was obviously already in use as this door… guarding the room beyond. While the second was already in his possession. He merely didn't have someone who could use it until now.

But his patience had paid off and this unbelievably pathetic young man was able to use the Sukeruton Key. And this allowed him to deactivate the door. But it required the blood of the royal family unfortunately. So he'd had to appropriate some from the only living heir remaining. He was actually pretty lucky if he thought about it. The imperial bloodline had a rather bad habit of only turning out one male heir each generation.

If one of them died…

Well, he wouldn't worry about that too much. At least not until he decided to have the innocent little brat executed. Then he'd take the title of Emperor for himself. Wouldn't that be a nice change? Yes it would…

And the artifact that he believed was hidden behind this door would be one of the bigger steps towards his rear sitting in that golden throne.

"Is it okay to proceed?" Sedric asked nervously. "I mean… it's not every day that we find out an Imperial Arms capable of blocking any attack is being used as a door.

Honest smirked. "It's fine, I'm sure! Let's go in!"

Sedric nodded and stepped into the room… only to shriek in pain as a white spear of what looked like a bone impaled him through the heart. Honest and the stuttering key wielder leapt back as the man pulled free of the spike and stumbled backwards, bleeding like a stuck pig.

He turned around, one hand finding the side of the door way. His eyes fell on Honest a split second before his entire body started to turn a light grey. Then… without warning he dissolved into a large pile of ash.

Honest looked through the door where the pale bone spear that had impaled Sedric retracted. It wasn't actually a spike. It resembled more of a blade… And it was connected to the hilt of a weapon.

A weapon that nearly brought tears of joy to his eyes.

His grin was savage as he stepped forward into the room, ignoring the pile of ash that had once been a loyal follower of the Emperor. Just as he theorized… only those of the royal bloodline or Imperial Arms users could enter this room unscathed… It was perfect.

Honest's eyes roamed over the weapon, laid out on a large blue cushion. It was beautiful.

It was deadly.

He rubbed his hands together gleefully even as he spoke its name out loud for the first time.

"Shiroi Megami Tsuin-ken… you are more beautiful than any description in any textbook. I will enjoy using you to bring me to power… White Goddess Twin Sword."

Ooo

Ooo

Meanwhile, at a fine inn on the north side of the Capital, there was man, a man who was pale new ivory and shaking like a twig in a blizzard. This man's name was Marun and he had just born witness to… possibly the most terrifying thing he would ever see… that anyone would ever see… in their entire lives.

General Esdeath, the Ice Queen of the Empire… had just strode into his inn.

But no, that wasn't the part that scared him shitless. Not by a long shot. Instead it was the handsome young man with her… The man who somehow and seeming without effort, was able to tell her… THE most powerful woman in the world what to do.

And he did it with a smile on his face…

Right before he kissed Esdeath right… on… the... lips…

Marun was quite sure that there was now a demon residing within his once fine establishment. A monster in the skin of a man. For surely, what else could tempt the Ice Queen? Who could possibly control her so easily? A mere suggestion from him was accepted and returned with…

He shivered, remembering her kissing him back even as they paid for their room.

The power radiating off them making him sweat, the fear that coursed through his veins, the terror as the young man smirked at him… taking her by the hand and leading her away.

The incredibly brief exchange had left him feeling like he was clamped in irons awaiting the gallows. Even when they had no intention of harming him. Almost in spite of the fact that they were paying customers… he wanted nothing more than to have them out of his Inn. He didn't want them there. Just knowing that the cold eyed murderess and her tiger eyed companion were doing gods knew what in the best room in his inn…

It made him feel like he was suffocating.

The fear was so… so… palpable. He remembered all the stories of her. The woman who had joined the Capital's army and in less time than it took to blink… had risen to the top on a pillar of power, cruelty, and ice cold professionalism.

He fervently wished that the ground would open up below him and swallow him whole. Anything was better than knowing that someone… she… who had defeated the entire northern army like it was nothing… was here…

Marun jumped in terror as the stairs to the second floor creaked. His eyes darted to the side as he… dear gods-dear gods….. Esdeath walked down the stairs. Her uniform had been discarded in favor of a lose white button up shirt and black pants.

He tried hard not to stare. She was stunning… and terrifying and… evil…

Blue eyes turned to regard him as she padded barefoot across the floor. He shrank back instinctively as she drew closer, her steps much… looser than they had been. It was almost as if she was drunk. No, that wasn't it. More as if she'd abandoned her rigid demeanor. Now she simply oozed predatory grace.

One hand came down on the bar with enough force to knock over a cart horse. Sapphire eyes drilled into him as she spoke.

"Your best wine…now…"

Marun's hands traveled at something approaching the speed of light as every bottle of fine wine in his possession appeared on the bar top in less than a second. Then he froze up as her killing intent dropped down on him.

"One more thing… bring me some chocolate… sweet, not dark."

He swallowed hard and flashed into the backroom of the inn, frantically searching around for what she asked for. He prayed to every god he knew (as well as several that he didn't and a few imaginary ones) that he hadn't used up all of his stock of sweets during the festival three weeks ago… It would still be two days before he received another shipment.

And he knew he wouldn't live that long.

Then, at last he found them.

When he returned Esdeath was still there, tapping her finger on the bar impatiently. Her gaze found him even as he presented the entirety of what he had left. One indigo eyebrow rose and then her hand darted out to take the boxes. Then using her control of ice she created a platter on which she balanced the boxes… as well as six bottles of the most expensive wine he owned.

She was gone inside a second.

Marun collapsed onto the counter, feeling his heart close to giving out. He'd never been so terrified at any time in his entire life. It was as if everything had flashed before his eyes when she asked about the chocolates…

He silently thanked whichever god or goddess had answered his prayers… and promptly passed out on the floor.

Ooo

Upstairs Naruto rested against the headboard of a large bed. It was in the best room the inn had, the VIP room as he would have called it back in the Elemental nations. The pillows had been stacked against the back of the bed… while he and Esdeath…

Naruto grinned and shivered pleasantly as he recalled the last hour or so. He sighed and repositioned himself on the bed.

The room was honestly a mess. He'd completely lost control of his power the moment the two of them shut the bedroom door. But it was a great pleasurable loss of control. He doubted that here was a better way to lose it than in bed with the woman of your dreams…

Literally in his case.

His head snapped up as he heard the door to the room open and close. A moment later Esdeath's head peeked around the bedroom door, her eyes trained on him, her skin flushing red again.

"Naruto…." She called out.

He beckoned her forward with one crooked finger.

She came striding into the room, having already shed the pants she'd put on to go downstairs. His eyes trailed up her legs, admiring every inch of her creamy skin. Esdeath for her part couldn't take her eyes off him, his broad shoulders, chiseled chest, and well muscled arms. She bit her lip unconsciously as she slid onto the bed, the icy tray coming to rest beside him.

He paid no mind to it, catching her and dragging her forward. She let him take her, moaning against him… loudly and without caring who might hear. That was good… oh so good… Naruto silenced her with a kiss. A kiss that turned into a tug of war between them as she tried to dominate it, only to lose to his more aggressive moves. The wine and chocolates laid forgotten as Naruto rolled her over.

Esdeath's fingers unbuttoned her shirt in seconds, granting him access to her entire body. He didn't disappoint her. His hands wandered every inch, stroking, scratching, and smoothing over her. She was in heaven and hell at the same time. They'd been at this for over an hour and he still hadn't taken her like she wanted… like she needed.

But at the same time, she couldn't protest it. He was doing such… amazing things to her. There was no way she could let him stop this ecstasy even if she knew something even better would come after.

Abruptly Naruto broke the kiss, pulling back and looking her in the eyes. She stared back as she panted, trying to get her breath back. That was when she felt his hand slide down from her breasts, skimming over her belly, till it reached her lower lips.

Naruto's hand came to rest over her mound. His index and ring finger spread her open and then his middle finger plunged in. Esdeath gasped, but was cut off again as he bit her shoulder hard. The gasp turned into a groan of pleasure. Naruto then proceeded to mark her as his. Sharp teeth left red indents in her flesh while his hard sucking branded her with hickeys. He was intent on making sure everyone knew who she belonged to.

Her own hands were wandering too… and while his face was buried in the hollow of her throat, her delicate fingers wrapped around his long hard rod. It was hot, even hotter than his skin was normally… and right now it was practically scalding to the touch. She could only quiver with delight at the thought of it going inside of her.

"Naruto…"

He paused long enough for her to understand that he heard what she said… then went back to marking her neck. Esdeath couldn't help but moan again as he added a finger to the one already pleasuring her. Damn him… damn him for being so fucking good…

She tensed, eyes going wide as she felt his sharp canines slide into the soft meat of her throat. It was too much. Her legs clamped together and she screamed out, her orgasm forcing her back to arch of the bed. The longest seconds in her life passed then her mouth open wide and every muscle taunt as a bow string. Then she collapsed, boneless to the bed. She was soaked with sweat, out of breath, and still more than ready for the next round.

Naruto hovered above her for a moment and then withdrew his fingers from her sweet spot. Even as she watched he brought them to his lips and licked them.

The sight caused the uncomfortable heat in her chest to pulse. She felt that she might be lit on fire if it grew any more. She wanted him… wanted him so bad…

"Esdeath-chan…" he asked, somewhat curious.

"Mmm…?"

His eyes roamed over her flushed face. "What was it you wanted before?"

She didn't answer for a moment, too exhausted to move. But after a minute, she collected her strength and forced her hands to searched out what she'd discovered earlier.

The second Esdeath found it… she squeezed.

Naruto eyes went half lidded while he shivered. She smiled as best she could, stoking him slowly, enjoying every groan that escaped his lips.

"I… want… this…."

He gasped. The strain of holding back was becoming impossible to overcome. His entire body was demanding that he take her…

So… he did.

Naruto grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her forward. Her breasts pillowed against his chest as she came to rest in his lap. Both of them gasped pleasantly as his member slid between her thighs. Esdeath was biting her lip again. Their eyes met… and a silent question was asked.

"I want to be on top." Esdeath said bluntly, answering his query.

A dark and not at all innocent chuckle escaped him. "I have no problem with that."

She smirked and put a hand in the center of his chest, finger splaying out over his solar plexus. "Mmm… lay back Naruto… I want to take this big boy for a ride.."

Naruto was about to comment on that, but he was robbed of words the instant Esdeath moved. Or… well he did have one thing to say as she slipped forward, pushing him down and lining herself up with his manhood.

"Fuck me…"

Her smirk turned predatory as she raised her hips and used one hand to position him at her entrance. "Oh… I intend to… now put those hands and mouth of yours to work… I don't want to be able to think or speak clearly when this is over… understood?"

He licked his lips and felt the Kyuubi's chakra starting to rise inside him. "That can be arranged Esdeath-chan…"

There was a moment of silence as both of them stared into each other's eyes. And then Esdeath, her gaze still locked on his, lowered herself. A long breath escaped him as he felt himself penetrating her folds. At first he felt nothing but the odd sensation of his dick slipping into something soft and wet. Then the head disappeared inside her and the fit became much tighter.

Esdeath forced herself not to break eye contact as she lowered herself, each inch causing her thighs to tighten on his hips until it became crushing. Through the touch of her hand on his chest Naruto could feel her trembling.

"Ah.. fuck?!" Naruto shouted as Esdeath seemed to lose the strength in her legs and dropped down the rest of the way, impaling herself of his cock with a scream. Flesh met flesh with a loud slap and they held still for a long moment. Naruto twitched savoring the sudden unbelievable pleasure jolting up his spine and Esdeath… breathless and shaking… tried not to collapse.

Almost a minute went by as the two lovers recovered and then Esdeath drew in a deep breath. Then, taking it slow, Esdeath rotated her hips forward… trying to get a feel for it. Naruto noted her expression was confused.

"E..Esdeath-chan…?" he asked, groaning a bit as he felt her pussy pulsing around his shaft.

"It… it doesn't hurt…"

"What?"

She shook her head and raised herself up. Naruto gasped as the cold air of the room rushed in to cool his member. But only a second, Esdeath lowered herself again carefully… almost cautiously. Then she met his gaze again.

"I was told this would hurt…" She mumbled, somewhat embarrassed that she believed it would be quite painful. "But it doesn't."

There was a moment of silence between them… and then Naruto chuckled. "Hehe… Yeah I was wondering. My sensei told me that the whole pain thing isn't really common. That's mostly older women trying to scare little girls away from it. Either that or they were stupid themselves and didn't do any foreplay."

Esdeath's eyebrow raised. "And how would he know?"

Naruto shrugged as best he could. "Sensei took me to a whore house when I was fifteen so that I would and I quote "Lose his fascination with women's private parts.". But I don't think it worked because my sensei is the biggest perv I know. Anyway, he writes smut novels and as much as I think they suck his information is accurate."

He smirked and licked his lips, his hands running up her creamy thighs. "So… wanna get back to it. I don't know about you but this feels awesome…" Lips pulling back into a seductive grin, Esdeath nodded and started grinding down again, no longer cautious or slow. She eagerly moved her hips back and forth earning a long groan from her lover.

Naruto's head fell back a second later. Esdeath was speeding up, small whimpers and moans escaping her as well. The initial unease and strange feeling of sex faded and in its place was the tingling hot pleasure she'd heard came after. She bit her lip, leaning forward and putting both her hands on Naruto's chest.

Their eyes met again.

"Are you going to make me do all the work Naruto?"

He chuckled/groaned and moved his hands to her waist. "Not a chance in hell Esdeath-chan…" With strength that a normal man wouldn't have been able to use from that position, Naruto lifted Esdeath and flipped her over. His blue slitted eyes now gazed upon hers from above. "But I changed my mind about being on the bottom…"

Her eyes seemed to flash with something predatory. "Then you better start fucking or I'm going to make you suffer."

Naruto's grin matched her own as he held her down with one hand, lining himself up with the other. She watched for a second, but closed her eyes as his head parted her tight lips… Then he slowly slid into her again, inch after inch disappearing until he was fully sheathed in her. His own eyes closed while he basked in the pleasure.

It was now or never.

He pulled back sharply and thrust back in hard. His hips met hers again with a slap and Esdeath's eyes snapped open wide. A short gasp was driven from between pink lips before Naruto realized something. Esdeath's eyes were changing. The Light blue turning colder… harder…

And then her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close while her breath ghosted past his ear.

"Don't… stop…"

Naruto knew better than to ignore her command. He repeated his earlier move earning another gasp, this time much louder than the last… and then it was on. Naruto thrust into her hard, each stroke driving a moan or a whimper from her. Soon her lips were on his, silencing both of them. Not that he minded all that much. He was too focused on what his cock was doing to bother winning their battle of tongues Esdeath's fought with his, winning even as his rod buried its self in her with each passing second.

Their hands weren't idle either. One of his was at her left breast, squeezing and pinching the nipple, while the other was at her pussy, rubbing feverishly at the nub just above where he was impaling her snatch. Her own remained locked behind his head to prevent his withdrawal and her legs were spread to either side, allowing him easy access to her.

Minutes passed before long and Esdeath had to break the kiss for much needed air. Naruto took the opportunity to pull back and change positions. There was a brief second where he lost him self staring at her naked sweating form on the bed. Her chest heaving, breasts rising and falling with each breath. He was still inside her half way and… he almost couldn't tear his eyes away from the spot where they were joined.

But then his train of thought was back on track as he cupped his hands under her thighs, lifting them. Esdeath caught her breath while Naruto folded her back on herself, remembering this position from one of Jiraiya's many and quite embarrassing speeches on how to please a woman.

He knew the so called G-spot wasn't deep inside. As it happened, it was within the first few inches towards the front. So this position would no doubt bring her to that ultimate peak.

Esdeath looked down just as Naruto drove forward, spearing into her. With her knees by her head and her lover thrusting into her like this… Esdeath found herself in one of the most submissive positions she could have imagined…

And she liked it.

Not as much as she would have enjoyed riding him, but.. "oh. ..fuck..me…" she moaned while Naruto continued to ravage her. She could feel the steady buildup now, just like she had before when he'd eaten her out… But now it was longer and she knew it would be even better than the first few times.

A sudden cry escaped her when Naruto's smaller head brushed something inside her. Her legs tensed even as they were bent back and her instincts shouted for her to close them, but Naruto was holding them there now and she couldn't straighten.

He brushed that… spot… again and Esdeath screamed. "..fuck? Na.. NARuutOO!"

He leaned forward, all but growling as he captured her lips this time, fighting for dominance and winning. Esdeath tried to claw him, but he only grunted when her nails dragged across his back. Her ears picked up a barely audible hissing noise before he hit the spot… paused… pulled back… and hit it again.

…and again.

Naruto disengaged from the kiss, leaving a string of saliva connecting them. He'd found her G-spot and the proof was in Esdeath's open mouthed expression. He wouldn't have called it fucked silly as Jiraiya would… but he'd call it a start. He grinned, the look feral as he deliberately made short hard thrusts aimed to trigger her pleasure.

And Esdeath's moans burst upon his ears like a wave crashing to shore. It spurred him on and he worked to make even shorter, sharper moves. Sweat started to bead on his brow for the first time since they'd started and his breath came in gasps.

But his lover's reaction was worth it.

Esdeath's eyes rolled back and she bit her lip hard, drawing blood as her back abruptly went into a painful looking arch. Naruto reacted by quickly rubbing her clit with one finger and pinching one nipple with his other hand.

Her scream almost hurt his ears.

The sudden cold that froze the wine bottles solid in an instant and caused both her body and his to drop nearly fifty degrees in a second however… That did hurt. And it was a rather interesting fact that had Naruto not been drawing on his chakra already… it might have killed him instantly. But as it was the flash freeze merely caused him to jerk backwards with a cry of pain. He landed on the bed behind him with a soft crunch as the sheets and mattress had been completely frozen as well, what little moisture that was in the fabrics having hardened.

Esdeath came down from her orgasm nearly a minute later and lay there on the bed, the sweat on her gorgeous naked form having turned to salty ice drops.

It was another minute before either of them moved, but when she sat up and looked around Naruto was already doing the same, drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra to heat himself as he did so.

The first words out of her mouth were… "D..did I…?"

He merely nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Naruto felt extremely lucky in that moment that his dick hadn't turned into an ice pop and broke off. But his attention was more on Esdeath herself. Half of him a bit uneasy now and fearful that her next orgasm would turn him into an ice statue… while the other half was amazed by how beautiful she was… covered in frozen drops and seeming dusted with powder as she was.

It seemed even the moisture in the air around them had be frozen… drifting down to blanket her like ultra fine snow. Even the room around them looked like a frozen wasteland. The wine bottles were cracked from the expanding ice inside, the windows were now rimed in frost, and even the walls were coated with a paper thin sheet of ice.

Esdeath looked as well and her cheeks quickly colored the shade of blood, her embarrassment at losing control over her powers like that probably more than she'd felt since she was a child. "I.. .sorry Naruto. I didn't mean to accidentally freeze everything… Are you okay!?" Her voice turned shrill towards the end when she saw he was still hard.

She… mistakenly… thought she'd frozen his manhood solid and her eyes widened in horror.

"Naruto!?"

Throwing caution to the wind he crawled quickly forward, embracing her. "Esdeath-chan… its fine… I'm not hurt or anything. It's just surprised me is all. You didn't lose control that bad. Don't worry about it."

Esdeath, feeling mollified now, nodded. His penis wasn't frozen after all… he was merely still hard, regardless of his near fatal encounter with her powers. "Are you sure it's alright..?" she asked, somewhat hesitant. After all, it wasn't everyday you nearly killed your lover during your first time.

"I'm good… just a bit cold it all. But I can use my chakra to keep warm." He wrapped his arms around her, holding tightly as he kissed her forehead. "I guess I can't expect you to have complete control over your powers. Especially when I lose control sometimes too."

She swallowed hard. "But… that's the first time I've lost control since I mastered using ice… and that was a long time ago."

"Eh.. don't worry about it Esdeath." Naruto grinned, his blue eyes coming to rest close to hers as their noses touched. "It's not like anyone can expect to keep control over their power when they're like that. Besides… your teigu is part of you isn't it? That isn't like others who use equipment based teigu. They can just take it off."

There was a moment of silence as the temperature in the room slowly rose, the warmer air from outside melting the ice coated windows, while it took a couple minutes for the blankets to return to normal. Then at last, Esdeath accepted that she wasn't to blame and relaxed against him.

"That was too close Naruto."

"I know…" He sighed. "You want to try again?"

Her head jerked around. "But I just lost it!"

He put a hand behind his head, scratching his neck nervously. "Yeah I get that. But you only get better by trying." Naruto's lips turned upwards in a sly smirk. "You can be on top this time… hime.."

"Hime?"

"Means princess in my language." He replied with a small smile. His eyes drew downwards to the beads of sweat that had resumed their trip between the valley of her breasts. He swallowed hard. "Well? I'm not even close to being tired.. I could go for a few rounds still."

Eyes narrowing, Esdeath turned around and straddled him. Naruto chuckled at her determined expression, even though it was clear she was a bit winded. "I'll hold you to that…" She leaned in to kiss him and he accepted it, one hand slipping behind her head to keep her there.

Esdeath pushed him back again. Her hands splayed out over his chest while her eyes fluttered closed. Both of them put the accident out of their minds, letting the slow burning passion build up into an inferno again.

…

Less than ten minutes passed and the inn keeper, who'd just woken up on the cold wood floor, heard the sounds of a couple in the midst of… well… it wasn't too hard to guess what they were doing. The loud slaps, moaning, and the creaking of wood told the older man all he needed to know.

Naruto and Esdeath were left unaware upstairs as Marun collapsed in a dead faint for a second time, welcoming the embrace of the inky darkness.

Ooo

Ooo

Meanwhile… not far away two feminine figures were hidden within view of the inn's second floor.

One was shorter, quite small with long black hair and crimson eyes. Her pale skin was flushed red and her eyes were unfocused. While the other was far more developed with fair skin and large breasts tucked away in a leather tube top. This second figure was also blond and there was now small amount of blood dribbling down her chin, stemming from her nose.

Her eyes too were somewhat unfocused.

…

…

An hour passed.

…

…

Two hours passed.

…

…

Four hours passed.

...

…

The blond turned to the girl beside her. "Akame…"

"Yes?"

"They've been fucking like animals for how long now?"

The dark haired girl seemed to ponder this question for a long moment before she at last looked upwards, turning her gaze to the afternoon sky. "About six hours."

"Fuck me."

Akame nodded. "You wish you were in there."

"As if! I don't care if the guy is blond or a hunk! He's been in the same bed with Esdeath Partas of all the girls in the Empire… and I don't give a damn how long he's been in there… Any man who that bitch would fuck is probably not someone I want to mess with…" Leone closed her eyes as her enhanced hearing picked up on another series of impassioned cries.

"N..Naruto.. fuck me.. fuck me harder… moremoreMORE!"

A long sigh escaped her. "But damn… I wish I had a hot guy who could pin me down and do me like that…"

"I think we should report back to the base and tell everyone."

Leone glanced to the side. "Tell them what?"

Akame shrugged. "Tell them that the Ice Queen has a lover… and if my guess is right then she wouldn't become close to someone who wasn't at least as strong her." She looked to the left, meeting Leone's gaze. "You remember what the boss told us. She is fanatical about survival of the fittest. If there is a new player on the board… one on par with her… then the others need to know."

"Oh fine… we'll go as soon as they finish. I want to listen in on their pillow talk."

Akame deadpanned so hard that somewhere back in Konoha, a certain ANBU operative sneezed.

"Hey! I'll have you know that I've listened into plenty of officials and guard captains after they got laid. You'd be amazed how much info they're willing to give to a girl after they've fucked em!"

"…"

"I'm serious!" Leone insisted.

"…"

The busty blond gave a long groan. "Okay… okay… Fine! I just want to get off on listening to them go at it and imagine the guy is doing me! Satisfied?!"

Akame nodded. "Ecchi.." She stood and proceeded to walk away from her partner, intent on returning to base.

But from behind her, Leone stood and shouted with finger pointed accusingly at her back. "YOU! You don't know what it's like being a woman with needs in a place where the only men are a pathetic perv and a buff homosexual! I want to get laid but my standards are already too low as they are!"

The accusing finger trembled as Leone's rage built. "You don't know my pain! I can only get so much satisfaction from teasing Mine or beating up Lubbock!"

Akame nodded again as if to confirm her earlier assertion. "Ecchi."

Then she turned and leapt off the roof.

Leone was left, finger pointed with a self righteous sneer plastered upon her face. Finally she dropped her arm and grumbled, turning back to the building they'd been observing. "Stupid Akame. That girl is gonna be totally blindsided when some hot guy comes on to her for the first time. And boy oh boy I am so going to be there when it happens. She won't escape me then!"

She chuckled evilly and sighed, imagining the teasing she could inflict upon the younger assassin. Oh yes… it would be great and merciless torture. No way in hell would Akame escape her when the time came… Hell, she might just get the others in on it too!

Then she'd get even for this humiliation… yes…

And she'd score some super hot animalistic guy too… and she get her brains fucked out every night!

Leone's evil chuckles degenerated into perverted giggles as she kept her ears pricked to the sounds coming from the best room of the local inn.

Ooo

Ooo

Meanwhile as Naruto and Esdeath were doing -ahem- things… Jiraiya and Armen were talking with the two newly, awakened teens who'd been saved the night before. They identified themselves as Leyasu and Sayo. Both were from the same village to the south of the Capital out in the country. Their lands had been owned by the Empire for a thousand years… yet they were still considered foreigners to the Capital it's self.

And like many of the villages in the backwater area of the Empire they were milked for taxes to an extreme degree.

So in a desperate bid to save their village, both of them had left with their best friend Tatsumi to join the Imperial army, hoping to send back their earning to keep the village alive. But things had taken a turn for the worse rather quickly. They'd been separated from Tatsumi, who had all their money while together they had all the provisions.

But… neither of them saw a point in waiting. After all Tatsumi was strong enough to get there on his own. He was easily the best fighter between them. Sayo had recommended that they continue on their way since their destination was still the same. Tatsumi would just arrive a day or so after them probably.

But that was when things went south for them.

Upon arriving in the capital they discovered that they couldn't afford a room at even the most run down inn. So they were forced to sleep outside.

Both of them had been ecstatic when the rich girl came by and picked them off the street, taking them into her home and even offering a place to stay for a while. But… the following night it all came crashing down around them. After dinner, Leyasu had come to in a prison cell… and right outside Sayo was being whipped by that same girl.

What followed was the most brutal torture either of them could have ever imagined… Neither of them could really tell how long they'd been there after the first day. The pain robbed them of their sense of time, making minutes seem like hours and hours as days. Sayo said that she couldn't remember much at all. After a while, her mind just shut down to try and block out the agony.

Leyasu on the other had… he remembered everything that had been done to him in perfect clarity. To say it had been awful would have been a gross understatement.

But then… then the blond boy had appeared and killed both of the sick torturers, ending their lives like the trash they were. He'd freed Sayo and him…

And that was pretty much it. There was nothing left to tell.

So now Jiraiya and Armen sat there digesting the information, wondering what to do with these two. Their provisions were gone, they didn't have their weapons, no money, and not even the clothes on their backs. Point in fact Sayo was wearing one of Jiraiya's kimonos which looked like a tent on her small frame. But it did the job of covering up her nakedness… at least the parts that weren't still heavily bandaged.

Leyasu was less picky about his appearance but this didn't change the fact that they had nothing. Joining the army wasn't an option now. They didn't have the money to buy a commission and besides that… neither would be recovered for another week at the very least.

"Well? What do we do Jiraiya?" Armen asked hesitantly. "It doesn't feel right leaving them on their own. There's no way they could make it."

Jiraiya didn't like to admit it, but Armen was right. He couldn't let these two continue on their own in the state they were in. That would be simply cruel. But what were their options? He and Naruto needed to get a feel for this place and quickly. And already Naruto had run out on his own and he was saddled with three civilians.

It was like the world was purposely fucking with him.

"I… have to agree. The issue with it is simple. These two are going to be serious baggage. If only we could find this Tatsumi fell…" Jiraiya paused as he realized something. "Wait… Sayo was it? Is your friend Tatsumi a young man with brown hair and green eyes… a little over excited perhaps?"

Her jaw hung loose and Leyasu jumped up. "You've met him already?!"

"Just briefly." He nodded. "He was there when we were attacked by a monster on the road. Naruto took care of it and the kid rushed over to see how it was done."

Sayo sighed. "That does sound like Tatsumi… so he was just a little behind you?"

"Yes."

Leyasu turned to Sayo. "This is great! He's probably already bought a commission with the guards and will be waiting for us to come by!"

Jiraiya held up his hand. "Wait, not quite so hasty." They fell quiet, obeying the older man's order. The Toad Sage continued. "Neither of you are in any condition to go anywhere yet. The Toad oil healed the wounds you sustained to the outside, but it will take much longer to heal internal injuries. Only a master of natural energy could use it properly. It's a miracle it worked so well on you."

The twin looks of dejection on their young faces reminded him of Naruto when he couldn't master a jutsu.

"That sucks the big one man…" Leyasu moaned in dismay. "…but I guess I can't complain. Better than being dead huh?"

Sayo nodded quickly. "Very."

Jiraiya waved them off. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm just saying that you need to limit your movement for another day or two, just to be sure that there aren't any complications. I'm no healer. All I know about the healing arts I know from watching others with far more skill in it than I. The bigger problem right now is the sheer size of this place and your lack of money."

"We know." Sayo muttered, not liking the fact that they were helpless. Not one bit.

"Here… I've got a deal for you two." Jiraiya motioned to Armen. "Both of you were planning on joining the army? Well Armen here needs someone to guard him when me and Naruto aren't around to do so. Once you two are recovered you can protect him. And in exchange we'll pay your way. How does that sound?"

Sayo and Leyasu shared a look. For a moment it seemed that they would agree, until Leyasu finally shook his head. "I'm sorry, but… we can't. Our village needs the money. If we can get into the army and rise through the ranks… Even if only one of us made officer it would be enough to save our home…"

Sayo inclined her head in agreement.

There was a long pause. And then… "Don't be fools."

Both kids turned to Armen. The man had crossed his arms over his chest and wore a scowl. "You'll never get close to that rank in the Empire. It doesn't matter how strong you are… unless you're someone with the strength and drive of Budo or Esdeath. The capital is corrupt. Almost every single officer commission is bought these days… not earned. Hard work doesn't mean anything unless you're working hard to fill the coffers of the men in charge."

"That's…"

Armen grimaced. "Look at it this way. Do you think that the family who tortured you would have been able to do what they did if they weren't rich and influential? Crimes like that aren't uncommon. And before I was kicked off the Emperor's advisory council by Honest, the higher ups were already turning corrupt. They abused their power to increase their wealth. And the military is one of the areas worst hit by the taint that clutches that this city's heart."

Leyasu's face fell. "So… even if we did work hard and earned it… we wouldn't get promoted to the position we need unless we were willing to do dirty work for the rich?"

"Exactly." Armen nodded.

"That's why I was offering for you to work with us. We might be against the Empire and our eventual goal is to take down Honest so that he can't bring war to our home… However, Armen has access to resources, enough to pay your way at least." Jiraiya gestured to Armen who agreed silently.

"What about after that?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "If you're still interested in working with us, then I can pay you with my own money. The only issue is the currency exchange. We need to find a way to trade in the gold I have on hand. Right now our funds are limited to what Armen had saved up."

Armen glanced to his left. "How much do we have left by the way? I know I had a great deal saved, but the trip to your continent and back put a serious dent in it."

"Well… let me check."

Jiraiya reached a hand into his shirt pocket and retrieved his wallet. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. It felt lighter than usual. He frowned and opened it, wondering if he'd pulled out a different wallet. But what he saw inside made it blatantly obvious what had happened.

Armen coughed loudly. "Well?"

The legendary Sannin sighed tiredly as he retrieved the torn scrap of paper from inside the leather folds of his wallet. This too he opened trepidation evident on his features. "That brat didn't spend it on something when I wasn't looking did he? No way he'd do that… He knows our money was running low towards the end of our trip."

The paper's message read thusly…

See you another time sensei. I hope you didn't think that prank earlier was the only punishment for waking me up. By the way… I.D.O.U.S. (I Don't Owe You Shit)

Armen snatched the paper from Jiraiya even as the sage closed his eyes and released an agonized groan. The younger man read the message… then reread it. Finally he crumpled it up into a ball with one eye twitching madly.

"I guess we will know how much money we have when Naruto gets back."

Sayo looked between them. "Um… Is this room paid for already?"

Jiraiya's head snapped to Armen. "Please tell me you paid for more than one night."

A small shake of Armen's head was the only answer Jiraiya received.

"Fuck."

Ooo

Ooo

Back in a certain Inn on the other side of the Capital…

"Fuck…"

"I know right?"

"You're amazing with your hands Naruto… Ah! A.. a little lower…"

"Mmm… One more time Esdeath-chan…?"

"N..no… I'm exhausted."

A low chuckle escaped Naruto as he kissed the nape of her neck. Almost immediately she leaned back into him. His hands wrapped around her and he nibbled her ear. "You sure? I can keep going you know." Esdeath stifled a moan as his hands cupped her breasts, fingers sinking into her pliable flesh. Meanwhile he was blowing hot air over her skin. A shiver racked her frame even as he answered.

"T..tomorrow Naruto..."

Naruto rested his head on her shoulder, whispering seductively into her ear. "What about now…?" One hand rose to brush at her lips. "Don't you want to keep going? I can do the work if you're tired. Come on Esdeath-chan… one more time…"

She shook her head. "Later…" her hands caught his. "…now stop teasing me Naruto."

"Don't wanna…" Naruto whined pulling his arms closer. "It feels so fucking good. I don't want to stop.. Besides you taste so good." He licked her neck languorously, savoring her. She was amazing… like sugar and salt.

Esdeath turned and pushed him down onto the bed again. "As tempting as it would be… not now. I can only go so long without resting Naruto." She smiled and laid herself down on his chest, her head coming to rest just under his. "However I would enjoy hearing more about you. You're still a mystery to me. I want to know all your secrets…"

Naruto groaned and snatched a pillow from the back of the bed and propped himself up on it. Once he was comfortable he wrapped his arms around Esdeath again. "What did you want to know?"

"Well?"

She went silent for a long moment, thinking about what to ask. "What is your family like?"

"Gone…" Naruto said, his mood dropping like a stone. "My dad was the last of his clan. My mom's clan was annihilated by the other hidden villages when she was little. My sensei told me that I'm the last Namikaze and probably the last Uzumaki. There might be a few distant cousins out there though."

"Oh… I didn't mean to bring up bad memories…" She sighed. "Do you know what they were like?"

Naruto nodded. "My sensei told me that the Namikaze clan was famous for their deadly knife based fighting and for their speed. He also said that Namikaze were renowned for being a lot smarter than most people. The Uzumaki were known for a lot of things. They had god like stamina, a talent for Kenjutsu, and powerful sealing."

Esdeath hummed thoughtfully as Naruto's arms wrapped around her, her eyes closing. "So… what about your village? How is it organized?"

"I… I don't really know how to describe it. It's big, but nowhere near as big as this place. It's in the middle of the biggest forest on the continent and its name reflects that. Since Konohagakure means village hidden in the leaves. The village is divided into the civilian and ninja sections. The ninja like me are the military force and about thirty percent of the whole village are ninja."

"What are the ranks? So you take out contracts on people?" Esdeath nuzzled into him, loving the steady beat of his heart beat on her skin. "You said that ninja are essentially assassins."

He chuckled. "Yeah… that's true, but assassinations are only a small part of what we do. Our ranks officially are Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and Kage. Although the Kage is actually the leader of the village. I know there's a term for Kage level ninja, but I can't remember it. Genin are rookies. They don't have much experience or they aren't very strong. Chunin have more experience automatically and are usually ten to twenty times as strong as a fresh Genin. Jonin are the elite of the village and only a few ever make it to that level. I'd say that the average Jonin could take on between four and ten Chunin, depending on the circumstances."

"And… you're a Genin still?"

Esdeath didn't sound disdainful, but it was obvious that she wanted an explanation for why he was so low ranked…

"The thing is I'm easily Jonin level… I'm as strong as a Kage but I lack experience for the most part. Or at least that's what Pervy-sage tells me. The point is that I was taking the Chunin exams three years ago to become a Chunin. But the village was attacked during the finals and there it made such a mess that only one of the Genin got promoted. And after that I went on a three year training trip with my sensei, like I told you before… I didn't have the chance to get promoted yet. Since it's not war time right now, Jiraiya can't do a field promotion."

"I see…" She smiled a bit. "That's okay then."

Naruto nudged her curiously. "Would you be angry if it was for another reason?"

"Mmm…" She seemed thoughtful. "How should I put this? I know that you're an outgoing and determined person Naruto… so from my point of view it's your village's fault that you we're not promoted. I might be pissed if I thought they were holding you back on purpose."

"Thanks hime…"

"Uh huh..."

"So… I hate to bring it up now…" Naruto started. "But what are we going to do about you?"

Esdeath shifted, glancing up at him. "What about me?"

Naruto sighed. "You know… the part where me and my sensei are probably going to try and kill prime minister Honest? The part where you wanted to be with me no matter what, even if it meant defecting from the Empire?"

"Oh…"

She went silent for a long while. Eventually Esdeath sat up, turning to face him. Naruto's eyes, despite the topic of their conversation, wandered down her gorgeous body. _"Kami… what did I do to deserve this? I think I could lose myself with her…"_

Naruto shook his head slightly as he realized Esdeath was speaking. "Sorry… could you repeat that last bit?"

He received an appraising eyebrow arch followed by Esdeath crossing her arms underneath her breasts… and lifting them. Slowly. Her eyes tracked his as he couldn't help but get distracted again.

"Naruto…"

"Y..yes Esdeath-chan?"

"How can you be so fixated on my breasts? We've been having sex for I don't know how long." Her expression was just a tad exasperated.

Naruto grinned lopsidedly. "In my defense I did say I wanted to go a few more rounds."

"You said that hours ago… before I was exhausted."

"So?"

"So… focus Naruto." she chided him.

His grin remained firmly in place as his eyes followed the sway of her bust from side to side. "Ah…but Esdeath-chan… I am focusing…"

Her serious expression cracked as her blush returned. She bit her lip and leaned forward, pressing her breasts into him. Naruto groaned, feeling himself harden under her. And at the same time, he reached up and pulled her face to his. Their lips brushed… and then both of them stiffened.

Naruto and Esdeath's eyes went wide as they froze, barely a half inch away from each other.

Naruto was the first to speak.

"Um… Esdeath-chan… who is that?"

She didn't answer for a moment, cocking her head to the side. "I don't know… but whoever it is has been spying on us for a while… Either that or they're terrible at hiding their presence."

"It's a woman… er… girl… I can't believe I didn't notice her scent before. It's so clear now."

"Her scent?"

Naruto nodded, sliding out from under her and stalking towards the wall closest to the bed. Once he reached the window, he glanced back. "If she has been listening in then she knows who we are and what we're planning to do… We can't let her get away."

A knowing look came over Esdeath's face. "Understood…" She extended a hand and summoned a spear of ice. "Open the window Naruto… I can feel where she is…"

"No… Your style of fighting is too obvious. Let me handle this." Naruto gave her a quick smile and formed a handseal. Instantly, he was dressed in his usual outfit. He then focused on the energy signature outside and vanished, leaving only a swirl of leaves in his place.

Esdeath let out a long breath as she dispersed her ice spear. Her arm dropped and she reclined back on her bed. "Oh Naruto… come back soon. I miss you already…"

Ooo

Ooo

Leone was aggravated. She'd been listening to them for a while since Akame left, but their pillow talk had just started moments ago… and it… was… fascinating. Esdeath was madly in love with an Assassin from some hidden village and he was planning on killing the prime minister!

This was way better than she could have ever expected.

And yet… almost as soon as it was getting good their voices dropped off to the point where she only heard one word in five clearly. It seemed they'd wised up and started to discuss the matter in hushed voices. That was just great. She wouldn't have anything to tell everyone else besides Esdeath was defecting. And while that was great news, no EXCELLENT news… the others would want more details. For instance to whom was Esdeath defecting.

She didn't know much of anything about this guy. Besides obviously that Esdeath had the hots for him…

Or was it the colds? She was an ice user after all and her title was the Ice General. Perhaps that would be a better description?

Leone shook her head as she tried to sharpen her hearing by turning her head in the direction of the inn's second floor window. The only problem was she wasn't in her Lionelle form so she couldn't use her superhuman senses. And now that they were being cautious… she couldn't risk going into the form to eavesdrop better.

"Damn it… if they'd only speak up… they completely dropped off now…" she groaned. "Today just isn't my day."

…

"Who exactly do you think you're spying on miss?"

Leone went rigid at the voice. Her head slowly turned and her mind raced. _"How did he get out of the inn, cross the street, and get behind me without me noticing?! And how did he sense me in the first place?!"_

She coughed lightly as she turned around fully and met his sapphire blue eyes. They were hard, hard as steel… and drilling into her. A shiver ran up her spine as she felt the raw unrestrained power all but dripping from him. His slitted pupils seemed to contract and his fists clenched. Leone giggled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck in apprehension. "You eh… wouldn't happen to know the saying… better to ask forgiveness than permission… would you?"

"How much did you hear?"

Leone broke out in a cold sweat. She stammered, "..S..some…"

His eye twitched. "You're coming with me."

"Mercy?"

"I'm not sure I would call it that."

Leone swallowed. "Well… I um… BYE!"

She bolted over the roof intent of escape… only to come face to fist with the blond man, who was defying gravity as he stood on the wall in front of her. Leone had about two seconds to ponder at the impossibility of standing on a wall like it was level ground… Then she experienced an instant of blinding pain… and inky blackness overcame her.

 **Ooo**

 **Ooo**

 **And this is the end of the chapter. Stay tuned for the next one and remember to review lots!**

 _ **Also…**_ **who wants a Deadpool cameo?**


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